Transcript Folie 1
Capacity allocation
and congestion management
in natural gas transmission networks
Walter Boltz, Chairman ERGEG Gas Working Group
17th Madrid Forum
14 January 2010
Starting point
• DG Competition’s energy sector inquiry report sets out some of the
problems in accessing gas transmission capacity
• It highlighted contractual congestion and presented evidence of this
occurring on a number of key pipelines
• Access to capacity is key to development of a competitive European gas
market and facilitation of cross-border gas trade
• Mechanisms applied today have not been successful in facilitating a
functioning capacity market
• Two recent antitrust-settlements by DG Competition against incumbents
show that long-term capacity booking which prevents access of
competitors to infrastructure needed to supply gas to customers can be
considered as abuse of a dominant market position
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Capacity allocation and
congestion management
•
Capacity allocation mechanisms (CAM) and
congestion management procedures (CMP)
are closely related
•
Within ERGEG, one team works on both
issues to ensure consistency
Draft framework guideline
on CAM, December 2009
Initial ERGEG principles on
CAM & CMP, January 2009
ERGEG recommendations
on CMP, December 2009
May 2009
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Transparency of the process
•
Feedback from January 2009 public consultation (37 responses received)
•
•
Feedback from February 2009 stakeholder workshop (more than 100
participants)
•
•
Minutes of the meeting are published on our website
2nd “ad hoc” expert group meeting – 16 December 2009
•
•
All presentations are published on our website
1st “ad hoc” expert group meeting – 28 October 2009
•
•
All ERGEG documents and non-confidential responses are published on our
website
Minutes will be published shortly
Monthly meetings with GTE+
•
Minutes will be published in the future
Please see www.energy-regulators.eu
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FG development process
TSOs
Regulators
Stakeholders
Commission letter to ERGEG to launch process
and topics for capacity pilot FG
Set-up of ad-hoc
expert group
22 Sep 2009
October 2009
Draft FG incl. initial
impact assessment
Discuss draft input to
FG with GTE+
Finalise draft FG
Discuss draft input to
FG with ad-hoc expert
group
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Presentation on draft pilot FG for public consultation
Public Consultation until 26 February 2010
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November 2009
January 2010
Q1 2010
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CAM – Problem Identification
Problems:
• Capacity products and capacity allocation mechanisms differ widely
from one country to another and sometimes even from one TSO to
another within the same country
• Capacity mismatches at many interconnection points represent a
major obstacle to cross-border gas trading and lead to sub-optimal
use of infrastructure
• First-come-first-served not an appropriate allocation mechanism in
cases of congestion
ERGEG believes that the capacity products offered and CAM
currently used by many European TSOs do not allow for efficient
cross-border trading
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CMP – Problem identification
Problems:
• All capacity is booked long-term at most IPs but often not fully used
• Currently, in many countries there are no mechanisms to bring
unused capacity back to the market
• Market participants ask for firm capacity
• The more shippers book the existing capacity the more severe the
impact of contractual congestion will be
• Secondary markets do not work properly
Capacity should link markets and not result in a barrier to
market integration
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Thank You!
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