Information for merchants
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has compiled and reviewed the opinions received about the proposed changes regarding the capacity booking of the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage Facility (UGS). After carefully considering the opinions submitted by the market participants, it is expected that the amendments will be implemented for the 2022/2023 storage cycle.
Regarding this year's storage capacity auctions, the current regulation, which stipulates that JSC Conexus Baltic Grid may organize two bundled capacity product and two-year bundled capacity product auctions to ensure that all storage capacity available for the capacity product is booked, will be maintained. The first auction has to be organized by the storage system operator no later than March 15 of the relevant year, while the other - no later than on the second business day after the day of publication of the technical capacity of the storage facility and the available storage capacity for the current storage cycle.
The draft amendments to the regulations proposed increase in the number of auctions and were developed in response to the increased dynamic of the natural gas demand. At the same time, to promote the transparency of the regulatory environment, the Regulator organized a public consultation with market participants from 25 March to 8 April 2021. The assessment of the opinions of market participants received during the consultation revealed that, although the amendments were generally supported, market participants did not provide unanimous support for the proposal that the changes should be applicable to the 2021/2022 storage cycle.
Considering the results of the consultation process, the Regulator decided that the draft amendments shall be open to consultations again after the end of the storage capacity booking for the 2021/2022 storage cycle. The repeated consultation process will be announced separately.
The Regulator expresses its gratitude to all participants of the public consultation. The opinions of the participants can be found here. The Regulator invites you to get acquainted with the current auction dates on the website of JSC “Conexus Baltic Grid”.