Terms and conditions or methodologies: the approval process

The European market rules establish obligations for Transmission System Operators (TSOs), the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E), regulatory authorities and ACER on the development and approval of terms and conditions or methodologies. To be approved, terms and conditions or methodologies must:

• be consulted upon by relevant stakeholders

• include a  timescale for implementation

• clearly address their expected impact on the objectives of the Regulations

• meet the necessary requirements as set out in the legal basis.

While terms and conditions or methodologies (TCMs) developed by all TSOs or all NEMOs are directly submitted to ACER for approval, regional terms and conditions or methodologies are submitted to the relevant national regulatory authorities (NRAs) for a regional approval process. Once submitted, the regulatory authorities or ACER should decide within six months after the receipt of the proposal.

In case NRAs are not able to agree, they can request an amendment. This provides TSOs an extra two months for amending the proposal and another two months for the regulatory authorities to approve the amended proposal.

In case NRAs are not able to reach unanimous agreement on a regional proposal (or upon their joint request), ACER is competent to decide on the proposal within six months from the referral.

Once the  terms and conditions or methodologies are adopted, the TSOs responsible for developing the proposals or the regulatory authorities responsible for their adoption, can request amendments. If this happens, the amended proposals should be submitted for new consultation and the approval process starts again.