Departure into the hydrogen economy: TSOs present current planning status for the hydrogen core network as first step for the future hydrogen network

The German hydrogen core network as the first stage of the future hydrogen infrastructure is taking shape: With the planning status published today, the German transmission system operators (TSOs) present a first modeling result for the future supra-regional hydrogen core network. Further information – FNB Gas.

Alarm level in the emergency plan gas: termination of crisis pursuant to the Gas Crisis Prevention Guideline

Today the German Transmission System Operators are terminating the announcement of measures in accordance with the Gas Crisis Prevention Guideline called out in March 2022, as there is no longer any special risk or disruption to the safety or reliability of the gas supply system expected. The transmission system operators will continue to monitor the situation closely and, if the situation deteriorates, will inform about the measures to be taken.

New gas transport service increases Tyrol's security of supply

The "Trading Region Upgrade Do It Yourself" (TRUD!Y) service will be extended by the "Überackern-Tyrol" module as of November 15, 2022. By expanding capacities on the German side, it has been possible to bring the Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) closer to the Tyrol market area. The new, innovative service was developed by the European transmission system operators Gas Connect Austria and bayernets.

In light of the current discussions about security of supply in Western Austria, the preparations for TRUD!Y, which have been ongoing for some time, could be used precisely and at the right time to enable additional flexibility and security for the gas supply in Tyrol: With additional capacities of around 250 MWh/h of type DZK "Dynamically Allocable Capacity" on the German side at the Überackern entry point and at the Kiefersfelden/Pfronten exit point, gas transport in this order of magnitude is now also possible coming from Austria from the CEGH and is available on a firm basis for flexible booking.

In bundled capacity auctions by bayernets and Gas Connect Austria at the Überackern/Überackern ABG point, these capacities will be available for gas transports from Austria to Germany from November 15, 2022.

An illustration with the possible transport routes with TRUD!Y is available for download under the following link.

Customized solutions - Do It Yourself

With TRUD!Y, Gas Connect Austria and bayernets will give market participants a tool with which they can individually put together guaranteed/firm transports coming from CEGH depending on their bookings and nominations. The flexible new service enables customers to tailor transport solutions precisely to their needs. This makes gas transports more efficient and reduces transaction costs. This is possible above all by the new DZK product at the interconnection point Überackern, which creates additional firm/guaranteed capacities.

You can find the TRUD!Y product range as well as the booking instructions for compiling the desired transport routes here.

When will TRUD!Y be available?

Further information and future updates will be announced here and on the website of our partner Gas Connect Austria under the following link.

Dear Customer,

Starting with 01 October 2022, Trading Hub Europe (THE) will introduce a storage levy (gas storage neutrality charge / Gasspeicherumlage) which will be charged for all exits at SLP, RLM and cross-border points. However, storage exits are excluded from this levy.

For ensuring that the storage levy will not be charged at storage points, all balancing group managers who are currently active at storages need to conclude a contract for a specific storage balancing group with THE (THE0BFH6…/”Balancing group for storage”). This balancing group will not be charged with the storage levy and can therefore only be used for exits to storages. It will be impossible to use other exit bookings (SLP, RLM, cross-border) within these balancing groups. However, it is possible to assign several/all storages to the same balancing group. Entry bookings are not affected by these restrictions. You can already conclude these balancing groups with THE since 15 August 2022.

We – being a transport system operator (TSO) – are also affected by this change. For being able to offer our customers transports at the storages connected to our grid without charging the new levy, we need to know these new balancing groups and have to activate them for your bookings of transport capacities to storages on PRISMA. Therefore, we kindly ask you to conclude the above stated new balancing groups with THE and forward this information to us using the attached form until Monday, 19 September 2022.

Currently, there are three possible scenarios:

Regular/discounted storage transports:
In case you only use storages that are solely connected to the THE market area (USP Wolfersberg or USP Inzenham) or use storages which are also connected to Austria (Haiming 2-7F/bn, Haiming 2-RAGES/bn, USP Haidach) only for “THE transports” (injection and withdrawal from THE market area), please state your current balancing group as well as your newly concluded (regular/discounted) balancing group for storages (THE0BFH6…) using the attached form (mail 17 August 2022).
Furthermore, please state if you want us to reallocate already existing capacity bookings at storages (either all or only exit) to the new balancing group. Please note that all existing exit bookings at storages which remain in existing, old balancing groups will be charged with the storage levy! Therefore, we recommend allocating all (or at least the exit) bookings at storages to the new balancing group. In case you choose “Yes” (=all) or “Only Exit” in the attached excel form, we will remove all (or all exit) storage bookings from your existing balancing group and allocate them to your newly concluded storage balancing group.

Cross-border/undiscounted storage transports:
In case you use the storages which are also connected to Austria (Haiming 2-7F/bn, Haiming 2-RAGES/bn, USP Haidach) for transports between both market areas (THE <-> Austrian Market Area East [Marktgebiet Ost]) and therefore use specific undiscounted balancing groups (THE0BFH9…), these balancing groups will automatically be excluded from the storage levy and remain unchanged.
However, please note that these balancing groups can from 01 October 2022 onwards only be used for exits to storage points. Entry bookings are not affected by these restrictions.

DZK Benchmarking Point-to-Point transports at USP Haidach – Uberackern 2:
In case you intend to use the point-to-point product between the storage USP Haidach and the cross-border point Uberackern 2 – please get in touch with us for further clarification.

After we received all information regarding your current and future balancing groups at storages, we will activate these new balancing groups for bookings on PRISMA.

Regarding the operational setup for nomination and matching, we will proceed as follows:

We will create new, additional shippercodes based on your newly concluded balancing groups (=internal shippercode) and the already existing external shippercodes at storages. So, your external shippercodes (storage side) remains unchanged and your internal shippercodes (TSO side) for newly concluded balancing groups will be the balancing group code itself.

After all these changes have been done during the week 19 – 22 September 2022, we highly recommend to exchange test messages in the week before the start of the new gas year – from 26 – 30 September 2022. It goes without saying that these changes pose a great challenge for all parties involved!

For further information regarding the storage levy please check the current version of section 35e EnWG and the BDEW guideline entitled “market processes balancing group management gas part 1” („Marktprozesse Bilanzkreismanagement Gas Teil 1”).

For further information regarding the operational changes, please do not hesitate to contact us.

bayernets herewith informs about the comming into effect of its adapted general terms and conditions of grid connection (AGB grid connection) as well as Technical requirements of grid connection (Technical Requirements).

The adapted AGB grid connection as well as the adapted Technical requirements come into effect immediately and will replace the currently applicable documents.
You can find these documents in the downloadcenter of bayernets refering to Connection customers.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the Asset Management.

On June 23th 2022, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection declared the alert level of the gas emergency plan (the early warning level was declared on March 30th 2022). This is intended if a significant deterioration in the supply situation is feared. The gas flows from Russia have decreased continuously in the last weeks, so there has been a significant deterioration in the gas supply situation for the winter period 2022/2023.

Despite the current market environment, bayernets ensures a high level of transport availability together with the other transmission system operators (TSO). Given the current supply situation, measures that are necessary are been taken in order to ensure the grid stability. As a result, the transport networks are currently balanced and there are no transport problems. The TSOs have no influence on the availability of gas volumes and the development of gas prices. The shippers are responsible for the trading portfolios for supplying the customers.

Further information on the gas emergency plan can be found on the BMWK website: https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2022/03/20220330-bmwk-announces-early-warning-level-of-the-emergency-plan-for-gas-security-of-supply-still-ensured.html

Further information on the current gas supply situation in Germany can be found on the website of the Federal Network Agency:

https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/EN/Areas/Energy/Companies/SecurityOfSupply/GasSupply/start.html

bayernetsherewith informs about its adapted general terms and conditions of grid connection (AGB grid connection) as well as Technical requirements of grid connection (Technical Requirements).

This need for adjustment arises from changes in the legal and energy industry framework conditions, for example the Energy Industry Act (Energiewirtschaftsgesetz; EnWG), as well as the constant further development of the generally accepted rules of technology, relevant sets of rules and standards.

Contract partners who are affected by the changes will receive a separate notification from bayernetsshortly. 

The adapted AGB grid connection as well as the adapted Technical requirements will become effective on July 13th 2022 and will replace the currently applicable documents.
You can find these documents in the downloadcenter of bayernets refering to Connection customers.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the Asset Management.

More than 90 energy companies, equipment manufacturers and gas network operators have called on the European Commission to consider hydrogen blending into natural gas. In their joint letter, the industry CEOs highlight the importance of hydrogen blending as a transitional solution: “Hydrogen blending can be an especially cost-effective transitional option in those European regions without parallel or duplicated networks, or without (potentially) available gas infrastructure capacity, which can be easily repurposed to hydrogen in the short-term.”

Open Letter

The “Trading Region Upgrade Do It Yourself” (TRUD!Y) service enables transport customers in Germany, Switzerland and in the market area Tyrol to purchase supplies directly from the Central European Gas Hub (CEGH), the virtual trading point in the Austrian market area east. This new, innovative service has been developed by European transmission system operators, Gas Connect Austria and bayernets.

TRUD!Y

According to tenor 3 lit. a of the BNetzA decision KAP+ from 25.03.2020 (BK7-19-037) TSO bayernets informed BNetzA about the amount of additional capacity („Zusatzkapazität“) and disclosed this information on her homepage (www.bayernets.de). In the following years equivalent information will solely be disclosed on the homepage of bayernets.
bayernets informed BNetzA about the amount of additional capacity („Zusatzkapazität“) at the storages USP Haidach, Haiming 2-RAGES/bn, Haiming 2-7F/bn, Wolfersberg/USP and  Inzenham-West USP. The additional capacity is 1,751,080 kWh/h and leads to an offer in the upcoming yearly auction for the gas year 2021/22 to an amount of 2,404,080 kWh/h.

bayernets would like to inform you about the following additional firm products that we will offer for the first time in the next yearly auctions and in all subsequent auctions for shorter periods as well.
The following capacities will be offered in the already published yearly auctions starting on 01 July 2019, 09:00:

• Firm entry capacity (FZK) in competition at the storages Haiming 2-7F/bn, Haiming 2-RAGES/bn, Inzenham-West USP, USP Haidach and USP Wolfersberg
  • 01.10.2019 06:00 - 01.10.2020 06:00: 896 MWh/h Entry FZK
  • 01.10.2020 06:00 - 01.10.2021 06:00: 832 MWh/h Entry FZK

Please note: Up to 2,709 MWh/h of firm entry capacity (FZK) will be offered in the quarterly auctions for the winter period from 01 October 2019 to 01 April 2020.

• Temperature-dependent capacity as conditionally firm, freely allocable entry and exit capacity (bFZK) of up to 1,262 MWh/h in competition at the storages Haiming 2-7F/bn, Haiming 2-RAGES/bn, Inzenham-West USP, USP Haidach and USP Wolfersberg.

This capacity will be offered from 01 January 2020 onwards. For this reason, it will only be for sale in the upcoming yearly auctions for periods from October 2020 onwards.
We will offer the first three quarters in 2020 in the upcoming quarterly auctions starting on 05 August 2019, 09:00.

Please note: Please find attached the temperature-dependent conditions according to the network developement plan in our Supplementary Terms and Conditions (German: EGB) section 5.

Currently we already offer up to 1,580 MWh/h firm exit capacity (FZK) for the summer period from 01 April to 01 October at the storages Haiming 2-7F/bn, Haiming 2-RAGES/bn, Inzenham-West USP, USP Haidach and USP Wolfersberg in competition. This procedure will be continued for all future summer periods.

Start of the invitation to tender of positive LFCs (temperature-dependent daily product) of Open Grid Europe and bayernets from March 25 to April 01 2019.

The invitation to tender of positive Load Flow Commitments will end on March 21, 2019.

(Please find more information at "Gas Transport/Invitation to Tender/Load Flow Commitments")

Start of the invitation to tender of positive LFCs of Open Grid Europe and bayernets from April  01, 2019 until June 01, 2019 (for two months).

The invitation to tender of positive Load Flow Commitments will end on March 27, 2019.

(Please find more information at "Gas Transport/Invitation to Tender/Load Flow Commitments")  

bayernets will offer additional firm, freely-allocable entry capacity for the region Haidach-Haiming for March 2019 as we already did for January and February. We will distribute these additional capacities once more according to the maximum storage load flow capacities pro-rata to the storages USP Haidach, Haiming 2-7F/bn and Haiming 2-RAGES/bn. The distribution will be as follows:
 
March 2019: Additional FZK Entry capacity of 500.000 kWh/h

• FZK Entry +243.563 kWh/h USP Haidach
• FZK Entry +219.903 kWh/h Haiming 2-7F/bn
• FZK Entry +36.534 kWh/h Haiming 2-RAGES/bn

 
These capacities will be offered in the monthly auction starting 18 February 2019 (published 11 February 2019) and in all subsequent daily auctions for March 2019. For further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via market@bayernets.de.