​​​​​ACER is responsible for ensuring the effective functioning of the internal gas market and therefore for filling regulatory gaps between the national and the European level. ACER strongly supports the cooperation of national regulatory authorities. If mutual cooperation faces a deadlock in well-defined cases, the Agency can take cross-border actions by using its residual decision-making power.

The Agency can also make recommendations to assist regulatory authorities and market players in sharing good practices and to provide opinions supporting greater compliance with the Guidelines and Network Codes. The Agency works transparently by consulting interested parties throughout its processes and providing opportunities to collect comments and feedback.

ACER has decided on a limited number of cross-border issues, as well as provided opinions for cross-border matters and advised regulators on specific rules in relation to the Guidelines and Network Codes. 

Agency decision for the selection of single capacity booking platform at 'MALLNOW IP' and 'GCP VIP

​On 6 August 2019, the Agency published its Decision for the selection of the gas capacity booking platform to be used at the 'Mallnow' interconnection point and the 'GCP' virtual interconnection point between Germany and Poland. The Decision establishes the RBP platform to provide services until the concerned transmission system operators agree on the permanent use of a booking platform. This Decision was taken after having consulted relevant stakeholders and technical experts. The Agency​​​​​ received offers from three operational gas booking platforms in response to its Open​​​ Call​, which were evaluated based on legal, IT and financial requirements. Based on these elements, ACER concluded that RBP submitted overall the most advantageous offer. 

These provisions apply for a maximum of three years.

​Transport contracts for the offer of bundled capacity products are widely used in the European Union. The CAM NC has introduced several changes that harmonised the capacity contracts across the European Union. The ENTSOG template on General Terms and Conditions in standard capacity contracts collects these elements in a single document.

Having a template that is widely used across the European Union can increase the value and usefulness of bundled capacity products, as well as making the administration of contracts easier for the network users.​

​​ACER believes the ENTSOG Template did not always go as far as would have be​en desirable. The Agency recommended the template should be turned into a ready-to-use contract, increasing its impact across the European Union.​

The Network Code on Capacity Allocation Mechanisms (CAM NC) harmonises how network users can use the gas transmission network to enter or exit a market, and how these capacity rights can be obtained. Different forms of standard capacity products exist: there are long-term (monthly, quarterly and yearly) and short-term (day and within-day) capacity contracts. The use of the transmission network can be unrestricted (firm capacity) or with restrictions (interruptible and conditional capacity products).

To facilitate moving gas across markets, transmission system operators allow the exit from one market area with the right to enter a neighbouring market area at the interconnection points. Virtual trading points in each market place facilitate the exchange of capacity rights, so that network users can easily transfer them.

A harmonised EU-wide auction scheme supports network users to buy capacity on capacity booking platforms. In addition to harmonising rules for existing capacity, the CAM NC provides a harmonised process to build incremental-capacity.

The Guidelines on Congestion Management Procedures (CMP GL) harmonise the approaches to identify and deal with contractual congestion. The presence of contractual congestion implies that some network users cannot get the capacity product of their choice and must rely on mitigating measures to access the market. Such measures are necessary to improve the efficient network usage and the overall market efficiency, and to avoid investment in physical capacity when contracted capacity remains unused. Congestion management​ is strongly connected to capacity allocation, both dealing with network access rights.

​ACER monitors the effective implementation of the Interoperability and Data Exchange Network Code and shares its findings in a dedicated report. The Report focuses on interconnection agreements, gas quality and odourisation as well as data exchange.​

The Report evaluates the key features of the national implementation and compared them in a structured assessment. The Agency found different national approaches to interoperability and data exchange and provided conclusions with a view to strengthen the application of this code. 

The Report assesses 19 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia and United Kingdom. ​

If your submission contains confidential information, claim confidentiality:

1. Indicate what information is to be considered confidential and clearly identify which persons/undertakings should not have access to this information.
2. Provide reasons why the persons/undertakings should not have access to the information.
3. Provide a separate pdf of your submission, redacting the confidential information and providing a description of this. Your description must enable any party concerned with access to the file to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to request ACER or ENTSOG to grant access to the information claimed to be confidential. You can use a PDF editor or print out your submission and manually replace confidential information with descriptions. 

ACER and ENTSOG are not responsible for disclosing any confidential information where the sender fails to claim confidentiality in accordance with the procedure above.

Hydrogen (H2) can be an “energy vector" - a fuel or an energy carrier and used for storage.​​​

Low-carbon gases, such as biogas, bio methane, or hydrogen produced via electrolysis by using renewable-generated electricity (from wind, solar, etc.), are important contributors for transitioning towards a less fossil fuel dependent and, ultimately, carbon-neutral energy sector.

As hydrogen does not pollute the air when used, it is considered a vital part of the solution to meet the 2050 climate neutrality goal of the European Green Deal.

The ​​Council of the European Union noted that by 2050 “green gases" – mainly H2 and bio methane – could represent 30% to 70% of total gas use. 

For example, hydrogen can help to decarbonise “hard to abate” economic sectors (e.g. heavy transport or energy-intensive industry) where reducing carbon emissions is both needed urgently and hard to achieve. Today, the amount of hydrogen used in the EU remains limited, and it is largely produced from fossil fuels. This is set to change as envisaged in the EU’s Hydrogen Strategy.

Currently, there is little hydrogen infrastructure development. Furthermore, what exists is not covered by the existing EU gas regulatory framework. ​Existing gas networks could contribute to this energy transition by adapting or repurposing to handle bio methane, admixtures of hydrogen and natural gas, or pure hydrogen. ​

Europe’s energy transition requires major public and private sector investment. The European Commission took an important first step in the proposed revision of the TEN-E Regulation by including hydrogen transmission infrastructure (new and repurposed), storage and cross-border electrolyser facilities within its scope - a step very much welcomed by ACER-CEER. 

To realise the European Green Deal’s ambitions for hydrogen, the right regulatory framework must be created to facilitate a hydrogen economy in a cost-effective way. 

​​​See below the ACER-CEER Regulatory White Paper on “When and How to Regulate Hydrogen Networks?”. Furthermore, ACER has surveyed the national regulatory authorities (NRAs) to determine whether and to what extent the national gas networks can be repurposed to transport bio-methane and hydrogen blends, and has commissioned a number of background papers (see below).​

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Network Code Implementation and Monitoring Group (NC IMG) was a forum for high level strategic coordination between the European Commission, the European Union Agen​cy for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).    

The NC IMG used to oversee the implementation and implementation monitoring of electricity ne​twork codes and gas network codes in the EU. Network codes and guidelines are rules to harmonise technical, operational and market rules governing the EU's electricity grids and gas networks, making an integrated EU internal energy market possible.    ​​​​​

The NC IMG is no longer operational and its work has been discontinued in 2020.

​The Gas Networ​k Codes Functionality Platform (FUNC) is managed by ACER and ENTSOG with the support of the European Commission. The platform allows stakeholders to report cross-border, regional and European issues related to the implementation of gas network codes and guidelines. This cooperation facilitates ACER and ENTSOG to find solutions to the cross-border, regional and European issues identified.    

ACER and ENTSO-E co-organise three European Stakeholder Committ​ees (ESCs), one for each family of electricity codes (market codes, operational codes, and connection codes). 

They complement, rather than replacing, the​ legal obligations to consult and inform stakeholders during the implementation of electricity network codes. ​​​​​​

Stakeholders' database tracking all queries about electricity network codes​

The ENTSOs' Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) methodologies should allow a neutral comparison between the costs of infrastructure projects with their expected benefits, in order to inform decision-makers. The CBA methodologies are useful tools for assessing the projects' merits, and therefore guiding the PCIs selection process first; and later the NRAs to take decisions on investment requests and cross-border cost allocation.

The ENTSOs have also presented an interlinked electricity and gas market and network model which should be incorporated as a future part of the CBA methodologies. A truly interlinked model will allow to study the electricity and gas energy system and network development options in a holistic way and capture the interdependencies between both sectors, leading to a more efficient network planning. The implementation of an ambitious interlinked model has gained momentum given that energy sector integration ranks high in the European agenda.​

ACER provides Opinions on each draft cost-benefit analysis methodologies developed by the ENTSOs, as well as the interlinked model, and may request the process for CBA updates.​​​​

ACER provides a cooperation framework for NRAs to establish and publish a set of indicators and corresponding reference values for the comparison of unit investment costs for projects of gas and electricity infrastructure, which could be used in CBA analysis.​

The projects of common Interest naturally contribute to enhance the security of the European gas supply. The degree of this contribution is assessed with the help of the cost-benefit analysis methodology. 

Under the European regulation on security of gas supply, ACER is mandated to decide on CBCA reverse flow projects, to issue Opinions on exemption requests and on the elements of coordinated decisions taken by national authorities, as well as to participate in the Gas Coordination Group. 

In its opinions on the cost-benefit methodology for gas​, ACER advises on how to improve specific issues connected with security of supply.

To better identify the benefits of a stable gas supply, ACER has carried out a dedicated study on the cost of disrupted gas supply (CoDG). 

​​​​The study provides findings and suggestions for establishing a baseline of negative impact against which the merits of a project or “soft measure" can be assessed.

ACER is mandated to monitor the short-term gas supply outlooks published by ENTSOG for both winter and summer periods.

The summer outlook examines the potential evolution of the gas supply as well as the ability of the gas infrastructures to meet the demand, exports, and the storage injection needs during the summer.

The winter outlook assesses the storage levels before the winter season begins and uses simulations to assess the flexibility of gas infrastructure to dispatch gas supply to meet demand during the winter.

Gas storages play an important role in the European gas system as they supply up to 25-30% of the total gas consumed in the Union during winter. The energy crisis which followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 underscored the importance of having adequately filled gas storages across Europe to enhance the preparedness for potential gas supply disruptions.

ACER, based on information provided by NRAs, periodically reviews and reports on national gas storage regulations.