ENTSOG South-North Corridor GRIP 2017 - Main Report

\\ Finally, the progressive expiration of long-term take-or-pay contracts and the increased interconnectivity level between hubs are likely to cause gas flow dynamics to become increasingly unpredictable and multi-directional. Flow reversals and shifts in flow patterns will be likely in the future, following price spreads signals, and a truly interconnected European gas grid should be able to promptly react. The South-North Corridor reverse flow projects enhance the interconnectivity of the European gas network, making possible a full-directional connection of the main European gas hubs currently still missing for the completion of the internal gas market. The South-North Corridor will make it possible to exploit also seasonal or just temporary supply-demand equilibria gaps providing the opportunities to ship gas in a bi-directional way from Northern to Southern Europe and vice versa.

SNC existing/FID  

Existing/FID (other than SNC)

non-FID

Figure 6.2: South-North Corridor in the context of other major existing, under construction or planned EU import transmission infrastructure

Currently, along the gas transmission route between the United Kingdom and Italy, only the UK Interconnector pipeline and the network in Belgium can accommodate gas flows in both directions. The TENP and Transitgas systems in Germany and Switzerland can move physical flows from north to south only, while the route from France to Switzerland and Italy is also only from north to south. The Italian network to date can offer only small amounts of technical capacity in an exit direction along the Corridor. To exploit the full “South-North Corridor” potential as flexible and EU-long interconnector and to unleash the above depicted benefits, the projects described in the following section have therefore to be implemented. Further considerations supporting the above project rationales can be found in Chapter 7 “Network Modelling”.

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South-North Corridor GRIP 2017