Merit order
Article 9
1. Subject to the principles set out in Article 6(4), when deciding upon the appropriate balancing actions, the transmission system operator, shall: (a) prioritise the use of title products where and to the extent appropriate over any other available short term standardised products. (b) use the other short term standardised products when the following circumstances are met: (1) locational products when, in order to keep the transmission network within its operational limits, gas flow changes are needed at specific entry and/or exit points and/or to start from a specific period of time within the gas day. (2) temporal products when, in order to keep the transmission network within its operational limits, gas flow changes are needed within a specific period of time within the gas day. The transmission system operator shall only use a temporal product when it would be more economic and efficient than the purchase and sale of a combination of title products or locational products. (3) temporal locational products when, in order to keep the transmission network within its operational limits, gas flow changes are needed at specific entry and/or exit points and within a specific period of time within the gas day. The transmission system operator shall only use a temporal locational product when it would be more economic and efficient than the purchase and sale of a combination of locational products. (c) only use balancing services where short term standardised products will not or are not likely to provide, upon assessment of the transmission system operator concerned, the response necessary to keep the transmission network within its operational limits. The transmission system operator shall take into account cost-efficiency within the respective levels of the merit order referred to under (a)-(c). 2. While trading in short term standardised products, the transmission system operator shall prioritise the use of within day products over day ahead products where and to the extent appropriate. 3. The transmission system operator may seek approval from the national regulatory authority to trade within an adjacent balancing zone, and have the gas transported to and from this balancing zone, as an alternative to trading title products and/or locational products in its own balancing zone(s). When deciding on granting the approval, the national regulatory authority may consider alternative solutions to improve the functioning of the domestic market. The applicable terms and conditions shall be reconsidered on an annual basis by the transmission system operator and the national regulatory authority. The use of this balancing action shall not limit the access to and use by the network users of capacity at the interconnection point concerned. 4. The transmission system operator shall publish on a yearly basis the information with regard to the costs, frequency and quantity of the balancing actions undertaken in accordance with each of the requirements set out in paragraph 1 and of the balancing actions undertaken in accordance with paragraph 3.