Some gas TSOs still struggling with transparency data requirements

Transparency data that some transmission system operators (TSOs) currently provide to the natural gas market is failing to meet the minimum standards required under the EU’s energy rules, industry has warned.

TSOs are required under the bloc’s third energy package to provide market participants with the information they need for efficient access to the system. The energy package is a set of rules for the internal markets in gas and electricity that aim to keep prices as low as possible and increase standards of service. The rules came into force in 2011.

The European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) has recently written to a number of TSOs which are not providing a level of transparency data required as a minimum for good practice, said Doug Wood, chair of EFET’s gas committee.

Wood said EFET had also started discussions with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for gas (ENTSOG) around how to help TSOs improve the timeliness and reliability of transparency data currently provided by some grid operators. He would not name specific TSOs that are not currently meeting requirements.

“With the new network codes coming into play, particularly with the balancing network code from October, it’s going to be very important to have information around the state of the system available. Ideally we want transparency on all entry/exit points and an indication of linepack for balancing purposes,” Wood said.

The network code on the balancing of gas systems aims at boosting and harmonising cross-border trading and will come into force by October 2015.

A spokesman for ENTSOG said that even though TSOs had made information available to the market, many network users still face difficulties transporting gas across Europe due to differences in market models.

ENTSOG runs its own transparency platform which makes available on one website transparency data from all European TSOs.

“It is the responsibility of ENTSOG to provide and operate this platform. On the other hand, it is the responsibility of the TSOs to provide and upload all information according to the local requirements,” the ENTSOG spokesman said.

When comparing TSOs, there are vast differences in the frequency of uploads and updates. Britain’s National Grid, Danish Energinet.dk, Sweden’s Swedegas and Dutch-British pipeline operator BBL Company provide data that is close to real-time, with a delay of just two minutes and is available via website and for download. Other TSOs only update this information on the hour or sometimes just once a day.

Some TSOs may be providing updates of linepack, gas volumes shipped in pipelines and system imbalance data, but often inaccuracies are corrected the next day.

Some operators have said to EFET they were struggling to publish adequate data due to large investments needed to be able to do this, Wood said. EFET has also been working with best-practice TSOs to identify ways for the lagging operators to improve data transparency without spending large amounts of money.

Most TSOs contacted by ICIS did not respond to questions on whether they were working to improve transparency data made available on their websites.

A spokeswoman from one grid operator, whose website is not updated in real-time and is often amended the next day, said the company did publish all data required under transparency rules in the third energy package sufficiently.

At the start of the month, ICIS revealed that European officials had questioned Romania’s TSO Transgaz about its non-compliance with transparency requirements (see ESGM 9 April 2015). miriam.siers@icis.com