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TAR NC Implementation Document – Second Edition September 2017
Storage facilities allowing for cross-system use in France
In France, all storages are currently offered by GRTgaz, the TSO concerned by such
specific storages, as firm and subject to climatic conditions. Furthermore, in the
case of a storage facility connected to at least two entry-exit systems, increased dis-
counts apply to such storage connection points compared to regular discounts. The
reason is that such cross-system storages are specifically interrupted in order to
maximise available capacities for flows from the PEG Nord to the TRS zone (with
GRTgaz operating the PEG Nord zone and the Northern part of the TRS zone). This
heightened risk of interruption justifies increased discounts at cross-system storag-
es compared to regular storages.
In practice, the storage discount is 85% on average for regular storages and about
90% for cross-system storages (due to reduced availability of TSO capacity).
Two offers of virtual storage are identified at the cross-system storage, each referring
to one specific entry-exit system. Any cross-system flow implies an adjustment in
commercial accounts.
Therefore, no distinction is made by way of an account for ‘regular’ storage use and
an account for ‘cross-system’ storage use, it is only an adjustment between the
accounts at each side of the system border. No transfer fee is charged on the basis
of the technical entry and exit capacity at each side of the system border, the
cross-system service is managed by the storage system operator only.
Only one account per entry-exit system side is used.
This configuration is only present at the interface between the PEG Nord and TRS
zones. However, the merger of the PEG Nord and TRS zones in 2018 will probably
make this cross-system configuration disappear. Therefore, this topic is only of tem-
porary validity for the French market.
Storage facilities allowing for cross-system use in Germany
In Germany, the TSOs have to offer the same discount of 50% for entry and exit
capacity even at those storage facilities – so that network users are allowed to register
for a 50% discount – in case the storage operator is able to meet the following
conditions:
1.
The storage operator has to keep two gas accounts per customer, which is a
significant difference with commercial practices in other MSs.
(a)
One account for the discounted gas volumes (50% discount), and
(b)
One account for the non-discounted gas volumes.
2.
The storage operator is obliged to track on an hourly basis and for each direction
(entry/exit) which volumes are booked on the account for discounted volumes
and which are booked on the non-discounted account. The TSOs are to be
provided with the information. Therefore, and in simplified terms, the choice of
booking on either account by network users is an indication
ex ante
for the TSO
on whether network users intend to use the storage facility ‘as a standard
storage’ and/or ‘as an IP’.
3.
The storage operator has to ensure that no cross-bookings from the discount-
ed to the non-discounted accounts are done.
In case the storage is used to transfer capacities from one entry-exit-system to
another entry-exit-system and a discount was granted, a discount reduction for the
transferred volumes applies.
In case the storage operator’s customer is using storage facility to transfer capacity
from one entry-exit-system to another entry-exit-system, two possible options are
given. Capacity could be either transferred between:
1.
The accounts for non-discounted capacities (case 1), or between
2.
The accounts for discounted capacities (case 2).