DESFA appointed as balancing forecasting party
(Article by Mira Todorovic Symeonides – Partner, published in the Energy & Natural Resources Newsletter of the ILO on June 7, 2021)
On 21 January 2021 the Energy Regulatory Authority (RAE) issued Decision 70/2020 (Official Journal B’ 473/2021), designating the Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator SA (DESFA) as the balancing forecasting party for the Hellenic national natural gas system zone, in compliance with Article 39.5 of EU Commission Regulation 312/2014 on establishing a Network Code on Gas Balancing of Transmission Networks. According to the regulation, the forecasting party is responsible for forecasting a network user’s non-daily metered offtakes and, where appropriate, their subsequent allocation. DESFA will also undertake to develop the respective information model which should secure the smooth flow of natural gas to the network. Further, Decision 70/2020 obliges DESFA to submit, within three months of receiving the decision:
- the proposed procedure for exchanging information with distribution network operators, as well as details
of all phases of the forecast preparation procedures; - data regarding the costs (ie, investment and operation costs) necessary for DESFA to undertake this role
and the proposed method of securing the funds to pay such costs; and - the proposed incentive mechanism regarding the provision of an accurate forecast for a network user’s
non-daily metered offtakes.
The RAE considered that it is difficult to obtain intraday information regarding network users which provide
gas to final consumers without hourly metered consumption data. Thus, the information is based on an
assumption that:
- there is a high number of such consumers;
- the distribution network in Greece is currently in a transitional period, as the size of the networks is
continuously increasing, as is the number of distribution network operators; and - the shareholding structures of some of the operators are undergoing changes.
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