ENTSOG GRIP South - Main Report

6.5 Transmissionand

OdorisationofNatural Gas

Natural gas is odor-free, but inorder to identify any leaks on thedistributionnetwork and on internal facilities, odorant is added to the natural gas. The distribution of odorisedgas iscompulsory inall Europeancountries. InFranceandSpain, theodor- isationprocess iscentralizedby transmission systemsoperatorsuponentryonto the system. Inmost Europeancountries, theodorisation takesplace just upstreamof the distribution networks. In the SouthRegion, Portugal is an example of that situation, although partial odorised gas is being accepted at the interconnections with Spain from January 2010. Further to contacts made in 2011, a difference in gas odorisation practices was evidenced between France on the one side and Germany and Belgium on the other side, which means that reverse flows towards these countries is currently impossible. This topic is the subject of a particular point in the network code on interoperability prepared by ENTSOG and submitted to ACER in September 2013. Then follow the process of formal validation by ACER, the EC, theMember-States, the Council and theParliament. In theNC is stated that the transmission systemoperators shall seek an agreement within sixmonths.Whereno agreement canbe reached or where the competent national authorities agree that the proposal is not sufficiently effective, the transmission system operators shall cooperate to develop options by identifying and assessing: a conversion towards non-odorised gas in the odorised transmission network or part thereof; the potential physical flow of odorised gas into the non- odorised transmission network or part thereof and interconnected downstream systems; an acceptable level of odorant for the interconnected transmission networks. Being directly concerned as boarder TSO with Belgium and Germany, first ex­ changes between GRTgaz and national stakeholders showed the need for a wide- ranging consultation in order toweighup the impacts of theharmonizationprocess. Inparallel to this,with regards to thecreationof firmcapacity in theFrance-Belgium direction, the installation of a new pipeline and an interconnection will allow in 2015 for non-odorised gas to be transmitted between Dunkirk and Belgium. It has to be noted that no French customers will be connected to these works, directly or indirectly. TSOs are working in the harmonization of gas odorisation practices with the goal to reduce barriers to the Europeanmarket integration.

Image courtesy ofGRTgaz

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ENTSOG–GRIPSouth 2013–2022