ACER publishes its report on the gas transmission tariffs for Portugal
What is it about?
ACER publishes today its report on the proposed gas transmission tariffs for Portugal. This report assesses the reference price methodology proposed by the Portuguese national regulatory authority, ERSE, and provides a recommendation for its motivated decision on the final methodology to be applied.
What does ACER say?
ACER concludes that ERSE's proposed reference price methodology (RPM) is appropriate for the Portuguese transmission network but finds one issue to address.
The costs allocated using the RPM also take into account regional networks as opposed to just the Portuguese national transmission network. The use of a single methodology allocating the costs of both networks can potentially result in cross-subsidies between the users of both types of infrastructure (i.e. users of the transmission network may bear the costs of regional networks).
While the proposed RPM partially limits cross-subsidisation between the transmission networks and the regional networks, it does not completely prevent this. ACER recommends that the methodology is adjusted so that the costs of regional networks are not allocated to the transmission network.
What are the next steps?
ERSE should take a motivated decision by 4 May 2024 on the methodology to set the tariffs for the coming regulatory period (from 2024 to 2027).
Access all ACER reports on national tariff consultation documents.