Slovenia's Electricity and Gas Operators Sign a Hydrogen Coupling MoU

Slovenian transmission system operators ELES and Plinovodi have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Yokogawa Electric to develop a nationwide hydrogen ecosystem in Slovenia. The signing took place alongside ministerial meetings in Japan on 10 September, witnessed by Japanese and Slovenian government representatives.

The framework covers sector coupling across electricity, gas and hydrogen systems. It includes a hydrogen plant demonstration project that interfaces with both the electricity and gas transmission networks, the digital solutions needed to operate them in a coordinated way, and mobile backup units for electricity distribution that double as fast-charging units. ELES contributes electricity transmission expertise and initiated the country's low-carbon hydrogen consortium; Plinovodi brings gas transmission and hydrogen infrastructure experience including European Hydrogen Backbone integration. Yokogawa Europe leads the collaboration, starting with a feasibility study of technical, operational and commercial pathways.

Aleksander Mervar is ELES CEO, Matija Bitenc is Plinovodi CEO, and Koji Nakaoka heads Yokogawa's Energy & Sustainability Business Headquarters.

Strip away the framing and this is a data integration problem. Electricity and gas SCADA systems in a country have typically never had to exchange state in real time; they were built by different organisations, on different cycles, with different notions of what a measurement means and how stale it is allowed to be. Sector coupling requires a shared operational picture across that boundary before it requires any hydrogen.

That the automation vendor is leading the feasibility study rather than an EPC is the detail that says how the parties see it. The mobile units are the other thing to watch: a unit that serves as distribution backup one day and an EV fast charger the next needs edge control that switches operating mode on demand, with the protection settings to match.