Marie-Claire AOUN – CRE [email protected]

Gas Regional Initiative – North West Region

IG meetingThe Hague – 25th March, 2009

Open Seasons Coordination

Marie-Claire AOUN – CRE

[email protected]

2 IG meetingThe Hague – 25 March, 2009

Agenda

1. Aims of the project

2. Overview of some open seasons in the region

3. Confidentiality in open seasons

4. Other issues to be dealt with in this project


Aims of the project

OS increasingly becoming the standard procedure for major investment decisions in many MSSome OS have met difficulties in particular with regards to coordination Confidentiality clauses GGPOS published by ERGEG in May 2007:

Provide basic requirements for ensuring transparent and non-discriminatory open seasons

Structure the OS in two phases Provide general guidance for the coordination between adjacent

TSOs and concerned NRAs

There is a need to provide more concrete guidance on the coordination of open seasons.


Aims of the project

The project focuses on the coordination of open seasons, but also addresses other difficulties encountered by past and present open seasonsAims of the project:

Propose practical solutions on the basis of the experiences gained from OS organised in the region

Provide advices to the GGPOS (monitoring launched by ERGEG in 2009)


1st experience of coordination and sharing of information between TSOs and NRAs

1st phase: April-July 2007: 39 shippers in Belgium and 37 shippers in France

Nov-Dec 2008: GRTgaz side = 17 binding agreements - Fluxys side = 14 binding agreements

Capacity available in Dec. 2013

Overview of some open seasons in the region

Open season GRTgaz/Fluxys


Positive points:

Good cooperation and information sharing between involved parties

Definition of consistent timeframes and coordination on contractual aspects: consistency in the capacity allocation scheme

Memorandum of Understanding between GRTgaz and Fluxys

Open season 2012 of GTS: Possibility for shippers to adjust their capacity requests thanks to the update of the timing of phase 2 of the open season

Critical issues:

The OS was postponed during 9 months due to discussions on transit tariffs in Belgium

Difference between the bids submitted in the 1st phase and binding agreements signed in the 2nd phase. Lack of incentives for shippers to reveal their real needs (≠ E.ON GT open season or Energinet)

Additional short term capacity on top of the requested capacity only provided on the French side (but the total amount of capacity (old + new) at each side of the border is equivalent)


Open season GRTgaz/Fluxys



Gastransport Services open seasons

Split up of the OS: But without this coordination Risk of capacity mismatch for shippers at transit routes

Balgzand/JulianadorpBalgzand/Julianadorp

‘‘sGravenvoerensGravenvoerenBocholtzBocholtz

GTS Open season 2005 leading to capacity in 2010 (H-Gas) 27 participants phase I – 17 participants

phase II

GTS Open season 2012 (executed in 2007) 42 participants in non binding phase

The OS was split up into 2 phases

Phase I: 23 binding agreements before 1 Feb. 2008

Phase 2 for exits Bocholtz and 's Gravenvoeren in order to give the opportunity for participants to align capacities with EGT and GRTgaz/Fluxys open season - ongoing


Open season launched on the whole network Non binding phase : 102 customers 44 unilateral binding agreements

Commitments: 80% for long term capacity contracts ( ≥ 15 years) 5% for short and medium term capacity contracts (≤ 5 years)

Shippers had to pay fees to submit non-binding requests during the non binding phase

Coordination with adjacent TSOs: Little coordination with adjacent TSOs, partly due to the large network

area and to the important number of IPs covered by the OS Problems of coordination with GRTgaz (Medelsheim/Obergailbach):

confidentiality clauses for sharing information with adjacent TSOs Contracts agreements not signed yet due to dialogue with

BNetzA on investment budgets


E.ON Gastransport (EGT) open season


Confidentiality clauses

1. Prevent stakeholdersstakeholders from disclosing information to third parties (including regulators) on the OS process, within the GRI and European regulatory framework

PB meeting 19 Dec. 2008: Ask operators to change standard used confidentiality clauses in better appropriate clause.

2. Clauses that prevent operators from sharing data (related to the OS with the operator of an adjacent system) Obstacle to coordination

PB meeting 19 Dec. 2008: PB sees no problem for functionally unbundled operators to share information on bids for OS

Operators Group meeting 15 Jan. 09: Identification of information exchange consistent with efficient coordination

Proposal to adapt these clauses in order to avoid unnecessary prohibition of information and waive the obligation for the users to write to the operators each time they communicate with regulators, or with other market parties.


Proposal of definition of the information to be shared between adjacent TSOs during an OS

Minimal coordination between two functionally unbundled TSOs is required. Adjacent TSOs should share at least information concerning technical aspects, timing of the investments.

Two adjacent TSOs (functionally unbundled) should also exchange information on the bids, such as:

Aggregate amount of capacity per point Amount of capacity per point per participant (anonymously)

Exchange of commercially sensitive data related to the open seasonIn some cases, the adjacent TSO could need information on the identity of the participants (for ex. in case of a mismatching of capacities requested on each side of the border). There should be no legal or contractual barrier to exchange the amount of capacity requested per point per participant under the following conditions:

Upon participant’s consent;The operator receiving the information is functionally unbundled; The operator receiving the information treats this information on the same confidentiality basis.


Cross border network integrated approach: one open season for both networks one investment decision

If legally possible, GTS and Gasunie D will try to develop one product and one contract (good testcase)

Synchronization with Energinet.dk, open invitation to other adjacent TSOs

Sharing of information with operators of adjacent systems: GTS shall have the right to disclose confidential information to a

neighbouring network operator to the extent deemed necessary by GTS in order to tune the relevant capacities

The neighbouring network operator is bound by confidentiality arrangements similar to those between Customer and GTS.

Ongoing open seasons in the region

Integrated open season GTS – Gasunie D. 2009


Model paper : Dialogue on Open season design (Nov. 2008) - 1st phase (Feb. 2009) – 2nd phase (Aug. 2009)

Capacity bids for each point can vary by +/- 15% from the 1st phase to the 2nd phase – but tariff estimates are not expected until the 2nd phase.

Need for coordination with adjacent SOs (Gassco, Gas System, Swedegas, E.ON Gastransport, DONG Energy Pipelines, Gasunie Deutschland)

Exchange of information with adjacent TSOs on a need-to-know basis. Differentiation between fully independent and bundled TSOs

Ongoing open seasons in the region

Energinet.dk Open season 2009

Confidentiality clause: Energinet may disclose the following: Information, bidding forms to operators of adjacent systems if the participant has not restricted such disclosure. Adjacent operators are under confidentiality commitment. Aggregate amount of capacity per point during phase 1 Names of the participants who have entered capacity agreements (without the amount of capacity acquired by each participant)


Discussion on way forward: Other issues to be dealt with in this project

Flexibility in open seasons contracts: Capacity alignment Provide to shippers the possibility to get out of the bids if they do not

get adequate capacity in adjacent OS

Need to analyse more the reliability of the 1st phase Significant differences between the requests of the 1st phase and the

binding agreements in the 2nd phase

Need to define a mechanism to stimulate realistic requests: fees, limit variation of the capacity bids between 1st phase and binding phase

views of IG about the reliability of the 1st phase?

Additional capacity for short term needs Interest from the industry (SG meeting 14 Nov. 08) for building

additional capacity for short term needs (or SoS reasons) on top of

the capacity requested during the OS


Conclusion

Coordination between TSOs and NRAs is possible as proved by the ongoing coordinated open seasons

Different degrees of coordination are possible: Full coordination as GRTgaz/Fluxys & GTS/Gasunie

Timing synchronisation and flexibility in contracts as GTS 2012

Minimal coordination is required, with an appropriate sharing of data related to the OS with the adjacent TSO

Coordination with adjacent TSOs may be difficult (but necessary) especially if the OS is conducted on the whole network

It is a fundamental condition to avoid risky situations for shippers and to provide them with the highest degree of visibility.

Marie-Claire AOUN – CRE [email protected]

Documents

Transcript of Marie-Claire AOUN – CRE [email protected]