Online Newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest news and information from publics.bg

News

World news

09.02.2017 14:22

ACER Finds Progress in the Voluntary Cooperation Towards the Single EU Gas Market

The allocation of cross-border capacity between Greece and Bulgaria and the coordination of the balancing interim measures between the two countries have proceeded only slowly

AUTHOR: publics.bg

© ACER

ACER published on February 8 the latest edition of its gas Regional Initiatives Status Review Report informing on the voluntary progress made towards the regional gas markets’ integration. The Report brings to light accomplishments such as the approval of a coordinated mechanism to manage congestion between France, Portugal and Spain (South region) and the completion of fact-finding surveys and studies in the South South-East region.

Beyond the achievement in the field of Congestion Management Procedures, in 2016 the South region took promising steps towards a coherent implementation of the Network Code for Gas Balancing. Moreover, National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) cooperated in revising the existing Interconnection Agreements at their virtual cross-border interconnection points, to ensure compliance with the Network Code for Interoperability and Data Exchange. Portugal and Spain took an important step towards regional market integration through the creation of the common trading platform MIBGAS.

In the South-South East region, NRAs completed surveys on the functioning of the Virtual Trading Points and on the implementation state of the Third Energy Package provisions, and studies on gas quality and data transparency. The latter studies were promoted by the Energy Community and saw active participation of the Energy Community Contracting Parties. The ROHUAT project (developed jointly by Romania, Hungary and Austria), aimed at offering incremental capacity through the route from the Black Sea to the Austrian hub, has entered the open season design phase. The allocation of cross-border capacity between Greece and Bulgaria and the coordination of the balancing interim measures between the two countries have proceeded only slowly. The same can be observed about the project aimed at minimising the burden associated with wholesale trading licensing and the respective reporting obligations.

See ACER report here.