The Public Utilities Commission (hereinafter – the PUC) informs that the interconnector Balticconnector is experiencing congestion of the natural gas flow from Estonia to Finland, as well as there is a congestion of the withdrawal capacity at the Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage (hereinafter – the Inčukalns UGS). As indicated in the publications of JSC “Conexus Baltic Grid” on the GetBaltic UMM platform, the available capacity of the storage facility is being ensured in accordance with the technical capacity.
The congestion management principles of the Inčukalns UGS and Balticconnector differ significantly. Within the framework of the Balticconnector congestion management, the interconnecor capacity is allocated among the system users in proportion to the nominations of the system users.
Meanwhile, in the case of the Inčukalns UGS in accordance with the regulations regarding the use of the storage facility, the natural gas withdrawal capacity is allocated among the system users which have submitted a trade notification for natural gas withdrawal from the storage facility in proportion to their booked storage capacity, according to the following order of priority: a) bundled capacity products; (b) interruptible capacity products. The proportion is calculated for each capacity product separately.
For the system user to obtain the maximum proportion of the storage withdrawal capacity at the time of the congestion, the PUC invites the system users to nominate each bundled capacity product of the storage facility at the system user’s disposal.
On 4 February 2021, JSC “Conexus Baltic Grid” increased the technical capacity of the storage facility from 184,000,000 kWh to 196,700,000 kWh. Despite this fact, from 5 February to 8 February 2021, all the withdrawal capacity of 196,700,000 kWh was nominated at the Inčukalns UGS. The system users are invited to follow the up-to-date changes on the websites of JSC “Conexus Baltic Grid” and the PUC.