ENTSOG Implementation and Monitoring Report 2017 - Balancing Network Code

1 Introduction

NC BAL 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 account for 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.

In this implementation report ENTSOG contin- ues to monitor the implementation of NC BAL by 1 October 2017 in accordance with Article 8(8) of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009. The results will also be published in 2018 in the ENTSOG Annu- al Report 2017. ENTSOG sent a questionnaire on implementa- tion monitoring of NC BAL on 28 November 2017 to TSOs of the following 23 EU countries including Latvia (AT, BE, BG, CZ, DE, DK, EL, ES, FR, HU, HR, IE, IT, LT, LV, NL, PL, PT, SE, SI, SK, RO, UK-GB, UK-NI) where the NC BAL ap- plies. Voluntary responses were received from Luxembourg and Estonia. Thus, data has been gathered from a total of 25 countries and 31 balancing zones. (Further details are provided in Annex I ).

This report uses the information provided by TSOs in each EU country as a data basis. Some TSOs indicated that their responses to the questionnaire were provided in cooperation with their respective NRA. The following section presents the implementa- tion status of NC BAL by 1 October 2017 and a summary of the main results. Specific com- ments and explanations are shown where rele- vant. Some more detailed information provided by the TSOs for each country is shown in the annexes to the report.

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.

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ENTSOG BAL NC Implementation and Effect Monitoring Report 2017