General principles
Article 44
1. The settlement processes shall: (a) establish adequate economic signals which reflect the imbalance situation; (b) ensure that imbalances are settled at a price that reflects the real time value of energy; (c) provide incentives to balance responsible parties to be in balance or help the system to restore its balance; (d) facilitate harmonisation of imbalance settlement mechanisms; (e) provide incentives to TSOs to fulfil their obligations pursuant to Article 127, Article 153, Article 157 and Article 160 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1485; (f) avoid distorting incentives to balance responsible parties, balancing service providers and TSOs; (g) support competition among market participants; (h) provide incentives to balancing service providers to offer and deliver balancing services to the connecting TSO; (i) ensure the financial neutrality of all TSOs. 2. Each relevant regulatory authority in accordance with Article 37 of Directive 2009/72/EC shall ensure that all TSOs under its competence do not incur economic gains or losses with regard to the financial outcome of the settlement pursuant to Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of this Title, over the regulatory period as defined by the relevant regulatory authority, and shall ensure that any positive or negative financial outcome as a result of the settlement pursuant to Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of this Title shall be passed on to network users in accordance with the applicable national rules. 3. Each TSO may develop a proposal for an additional settlement mechanism separate from the imbalance settlement, to settle the procurement costs of balancing capacity pursuant to Chapter 5 of this Title, administrative costs and other costs related to balancing. The additional settlement mechanism shall apply to balance responsible parties. This should be preferably achieved with the introduction of a shortage pricing function. If TSOs choose another mechanism, they should justify this in the proposal. Such a proposal shall be subject to approval by the relevant regulatory authority. 4. Each injection or withdrawal into or from a scheduling area of a TSO shall either be settled in accordance with Chapter 3 or Chapter 4 of Title V.