The European Regulators' Group for electricity and gas (ERGEG), European Gas Regulatory Forum (Madrid Forum)

Summary of the initiative

Name
The European Regulators' Group for electricity and gas (ERGEG), European Gas Regulatory Forum (Madrid Forum)
Objective(s)
Article 19 of Directive 2003/55/EC provides that Member States may choose between regulated and negotiated access to storage. "In the case of negotiated access, Member States shall take the necessary measures for natural gas undertakings and eligible customers either inside or outside the territory covered by the interconnected system to be able to negotiate access to storage and linepack, when technically and/or economically necessary for providing efficient access to the system, as well as for the organisation of access to other ancillary services." The GGPSSO lay down qualitative minimum requirements to be implemented by storage operators in order to allow access to storage facilities in line with Article 19 of Directive 2003/55/EC.

Description of the Initiative

    Sector

    Sector

    Commission DG
    Contact Point - Commission
    ENER.DDG1.B.2

    Self/Co-Regulation Basic Act

    LEGISLATIVE ACT
    Year
    2003
    Title of Act
    Directive 2003/55/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2003 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and repealing Directive 98/30/EC, Official Journal L 176, 15.7.2003, p. 57-78.
    PRIVATE ACT
    Year
    2005
    Title of Act
    Guidelines for Good Third Party Access Practice for Storage System Operators (GGPSSO)

    Geographical Coverage

    Global coverage
    Participating Countries
    Austria

    Description

    Problems that lead to the introduction of Self/Co-Regulation and the adoption of the Founding Act
    Discriminatory access to gas storage facilities. Impediment for the development of competition on the internal market for gas. Storage operators across the European market did not comply fully with Third Party Access to the gas networks as required by article 19 of Directive 2003/55/EC.
    Target Group(s)
    Storage System Operators (SSOs) and storage users.
    Type of Instrument(s)
    Voluntary non-binding agreement.
    Level(s) at which private rules should be defined and applied
    Type of Financing
    -
    Type of Monitoring
    Conduct an initial survey of compliance capacity of future regulateesConduct regular visits and spot checksInitiate complaints proceduresMaintain database of those bounded by the normsProduce regular reportsReceive complaints and verify if norms were breached or notReflexive dialogue with the - stakeholdersOther
    European Commission
    National public authority
    International public authority
    Private regulator (code owner)
    Private independent party with a mandate (e.g. auditors)
    Self-appointed private parties (e.g. NGOs)
    Succinct description of the type of Monitoring
    ERGEG (the European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas), set up by Commission Decision of 11 November 2003 on establishing the European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas, L296/34 of 14 November 2003) monitors the implementation of the GGPSSO and reports back to the Madrid Forum.
    Type of Enforcement
    Faming, shaming and blamingJudicial sanctionsMembership suspension/exclusionPrivate finesOther
    Private Regulatoryes
    Private independent party with a mandate (e.g. auditors)
    Court system
    Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) / Online dispute resolution (ODR)
    Succinct description of the type of Enforcement
    -

    Results of Commission Monitoring

    Year of last Monitoring Results
    2006
    Scoring
    Link / Reference of Evaluation
    -

    Downloads

    Guidelines for Good TPA Practice fo r Storage System Operators (GGPSSO)