ENTSOG Implementation and Monitoring Report 2017 - Balancing Network Code

1 Introduction

The BAL NC was published on 27 March 2014 and applies to balancing zones within the borders of the EU. It establishes rules for natural gas balancing, including network-related rules on nomination procedures, imbalance charges, settlement processes associated with daily imbalance charges and provisions on operational balancing. Its implementation shall also take into account the specific nature of interconnectors. 1) For countries like Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg and Malta that hold derogation on the basis of Article 49 of Directive 2009/73/EC it is not mandatory to apply NC BAL. Since May 2017, Latvia does not hold a derogation anymore.

Following Article 8 (8) of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009, ENTSOG shall monitor the effects of the BAL NC in the European market. ENTSOG sent a questionnaire on 28 November 2017 to its members. The 25 countries (AT, BG, BE/LU, CZ, DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LV, NL, PL, PT, SE, SI, SK, RO, UK-GB and UK-NI) which have responded are clustered into three groups related to their chosen implemen- tation deadline as follow:

Further details on countries and their balancing zones are provided in annex I of the Implement- ing Monitoring report. This report is analysing data sent by the TSOs for the period running from 1 October 2016 to 30 September 2017  4) .

\\ Cluster 2015: AT, BE/LU, DE, DK, FR, HU, NL, SI and UK-GB (10 countries)

\\ Cluster 2016: CZ, ES, HR, IT and PT (5 countries)

\\ Cluster 2019 2) : BG, EE, EL, IE, LT, LV, PL, SE, SK, RO and UK-NI  3) (11 countries). Estonia holds a derogation but has responded on a voluntary base. For the presentation of the indicators, Estonia will be added to this cluster.

1) Recital (8) of BAL NC. Due to the specific nature of interconnectors, IUK and BBL implemented the BAL network code on an “in = out” principle, whereby a network user’s delivery nominations must equal its offtake nominations. As such, network users cannot be exposed to an imbalance and there is no need to take balancing actions. Therefore, many of the requirements of NC BAL do not apply. Where BAL does apply, e. g. relevant rules on nominations, IUK and BBL have taken all reasonable steps to ensure compliance with the requirements. This approach was approved by the relevant NRAs. 2) In Germany in addition to a trading platform, a balancing platform has been applied as an interim measure. All other provisions of the BAL NC have been reported as implemented. In order to avoid duplication, Germany is clustered only once in 2015 cluster. 3) UK is clustered two times: UK-GB in cluster 2015 and UK-NI in cluster 2019. 4) Except for Austria where the data concerning the Market Area Manager were only available from 1 October 2016 to 31 May 2017.

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ENTSOG BAL NC Implementation and Effect Monitoring Report 2017