Managing cross-border trade restrictions due to gas quality differences
1. Transmission system operators shall cooperate to avoid restrictions to cross-border trade due to gas quality differences. These actions, initiated and carried out by the transmission system operators in their standard operations, may include, among others, swapping and co-mingling.
2. Where a restriction to cross-border trade due to gas quality differences cannot be avoided by the concerned transmission system operators and is recognised by the national regulatory authorities, those authorities may require the transmission system operators to perform, within 12 months, the actions referred to in points (a) to (e) in sequence:
(a)
cooperate and develop technically feasible options, without changing the gas quality specifications, which may include flow commitments and gas treatment, in order to remove the recognised restriction;
(b)
jointly carry out a cost benefit analysis on the technically feasible options to define economically efficient solutions which shall specify the breakdown of costs and benefits among the categories of affected parties;
(c)
produce an estimate of the implementation time for each potential option;
(d)
conduct a public consultation on identified feasible solutions and take into consideration the results of the consultation;
(e)
submit a joint proposal for removing the recognised restriction, including the timeframe for implementation, based on the cost benefit analysis and results of the public consultation to their respective national regulatory authorities for approval and to the other competent national authorities of each involved Member State for information.
Where the concerned transmission system operators do not reach an agreement on a solution, each transmission system operator shall promptly inform its national regulatory authority.
3. Before adopting a decision pursuant to point (e) of paragraph 2, each national regulatory authority shall consult the national regulatory authorities of the concerned Member States. In adopting its decision, each national regulatory authority shall take account of the adjacent national regulatory authorities' opinion with a view to have a coordinated decision based on mutual agreement.
Short term monitoring on gas quality — data publication
Transmission system operators shall publish on their website for each interconnection point, with a frequency of at least once per hour during the gas day, the Wobbe-index and gross calorific value for gas directly entering their transmission networks at all physical interconnection points. Entsog shall publish on its Union-wide central platform established pursuant to point 3.1.1(1)(h) of Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 a link to the relevant information on the websites of the transmission system operators.
Information provision on short-term gas quality variation
1. In addition to interconnection points, this Article shall apply to other points on transmission networks where the gas quality is measured.
2. A transmission system operator may select one or several of the following parties to receive information on gas quality variation:
(a)
final customers directly connected to the transmission system operator's network, whose operational processes are adversely affected by gas quality changes or a network user acting on behalf of a final customer whose operational processes are adversely affected by gas quality changes, where a direct contractual arrangement between a transmission system operator and its directly connected final customers is not foreseen by the national rules;
(b)
distribution system operators directly connected to the transmission system operator's network, with connected final customers whose operational processes are adversely affected by gas quality changes;
(c)
storage system operators directly connected to the transmission system operator's network, whose operational processes are adversely affected by gas quality changes.
3. Each transmission system operator shall:
(a)
define and maintain a list of parties entitled to receive indicative gas quality information;
(b)
cooperate with the parties identified in the above list in order to assess:
(i)
the relevant information on gas quality parameters to be provided;
(ii)
the frequency for the information to be provided;
(iii)
the lead time;
(iv)
the method of communication.
4. Paragraph 3 shall not impose an obligation on transmission system operators to install additional measurement or forecasting equipment, unless otherwise required by the national regulatory authority. The information under paragraph 3(b)(i) of this Article shall be provided as the transmission system operator's best estimate at a point in time and for the internal use of the recipient of the information.
Long-term monitoring on gas quality in transmission systems
1. Entsog shall publish every two years a long-term gas quality monitoring outlook for transmission systems in order to identify the potential trends of gas quality parameters and respective potential variability within the next 10 years. The first long-term gas quality monitoring outlook shall be published along with the Ten-Year Network Development Plan of 2017.
2. The outlook shall be based on the inputs gathered in the framework of the regional cooperation established within Entsog in accordance with Article 12(1) of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009.
3. The long-term gas quality monitoring outlook shall cover at least the Wobbe-index and gross calorific value. Additional gas quality parameters may be included after consultation with the stakeholders referred to in paragraph 8.
4. The long-term gas quality monitoring outlook shall identify potential new supply sources from a gas quality perspective.
5. In order to define the reference values of gas quality parameters for the respective supply sources to be used in the outlook, an analysis of the previous years shall be carried out. Such data may be replaced by stakeholders' inputs which result from the stakeholders' engagement process referred to in paragraph 8.
6. For every gas quality parameter considered and every region, the analysis shall result in a range within which the parameter is likely to evolve.
7. The long-term gas quality monitoring outlook shall be consistent and aligned with the Entsog Union-wide Ten-Year Network Development Plan under preparation at the same time.
8. The stakeholders' consultation process used for the Union-wide Ten-Year Network Development Plan shall be expanded to include gas quality as an item. Through this process, stakeholders shall be invited to provide Entsog with their views on the evolution of gas quality parameters of supplies.
Managing cross-border trade restrictions due to differences in odourisation practices
1. Where a restriction to cross-border trade due to differences in odourisation practices cannot be avoided by the concerned transmission system operators and is recognised by national authorities, the authorities may require the concerned transmission system operators to reach an agreement within six months, which may include swapping and flow commitments, to solve any restriction recognised. The concerned adjacent transmission system operators shall provide their respective national authorities with the agreement for approval.
2. Where no agreement can be reached between the concerned transmission system operators after the six-month period referred to in paragraph 1 or where the national authorities agree that the proposed agreement by the concerned adjacent transmission system operators is not sufficiently effective to remove the restriction, the concerned transmission system operators, in cooperation with national authorities, shall, within the following 12 months, define a detailed plan setting out the most cost effective method to remove a recognised restriction at the specific cross-border interconnection point.
3. For the purpose of fulfilling the obligations under paragraph 2, the concerned transmission system operators shall in sequence:
(a)
develop options to remove the restriction by identifying and assessing:
(i)
a conversion towards cross-border physical flow of non-odourised gas;
(ii)
the potential physical flow of odourised gas into the non-odourised transmission network or part thereof and interconnected downstream systems;
(iii)
an acceptable level of odourant for cross-border physical gas flow.
(b)
jointly carry out a cost-benefit analysis on the technically feasible options to define economically efficient solutions. That analysis shall:
(i)
take into account the level of safety;
(ii)
include information on projected volumes of gas to be transported and details of costs of necessary infrastructure investments;
(iii)
specify the breakdown of costs and benefits between the categories of affected parties;
(c)
produce an estimate of the implementation time for each potential option;
(d)
conduct a public consultation and take into consideration the results of such consultation;
(e)
submit the feasible solutions including the cost recovery mechanism and implementation timing to the national authorities for approval.
Once a solution is approved by the national authorities, that solution shall be implemented in accordance with the timeframe provided for in point (e).
4. If the national authorities do not approve any solution submitted under point (e) of paragraph 3 within six months from its submission or if the concerned transmission system operators fail to propose a solution within the 12 months' framework of paragraph 2, a shift towards the cross-border physical flow of non-odourised gas shall be implemented within a time-frame approved by the national authorities, but not exceeding four years. After a full technical shift towards non-odourised gas, transmission system operators shall accept technically unavoidable levels of successively reducing residual amounts of odourants in cross-border flows.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
