CHAPTER IIIOPERATIONAL BALANCING
Article 8Balancing services
1.
The transmission system operator is entitled to procure balancing services for those situations in which short term standardised products will not or are not likely to provide the response necessary to keep the transmission network within its operational limits or in the absence of liquidity of trade in short term standardised products.
2.
For the purpose of undertaking balancing actions through the use of balancing services, the transmission system operator when procuring these balancing services shall consider at least the following:
(a)
how balancing services will keep the transmission network within its operational limits;
(b)
the response time of the balancing services compared to the response times of any available short term standardised products;
(c)
the estimated cost of the procurement and use of balancing services compared to the estimated cost of use of any available short term standardised products;
(d)
the area at which the gas needs to be delivered;
(e)
the transmission system operator’s gas quality requirements;
(f)
to what extent the procurement and use of balancing services may affect the liquidity of the short term wholesale gas market.
3.
Balancing services shall be procured in a market-based manner, through a transparent and non-discriminatory public tender procedure in accordance with the applicable national rules, in particular:
(a)
prior to any commitment to contract for a balancing service, the transmission system operator shall publish a non-restrictive call for tender indicating the purpose, scope and related instructions to tenderers, to enable them to participate in the tender process;
(b)
the results shall be published without prejudice to the protection of commercially sensitive information and individual results shall be disclosed to each tenderer.
4.
Under specific circumstances a transparent and non-discriminatory procedure other than a public tender may be approved by the national regulatory authority.
5.
Unless a decision by the national regulatory authority allows for a longer duration of a balancing service, the duration of a balancing service shall not exceed one year and the starting date shall occur within a twelve month period from the related binding commitment of the contracting parties.
6.
The transmission system operator shall review the use of its balancing services annually in order to assess whether available short term standardised products would better meet the transmission system operator’s operational requirements and whether the use of balancing services could be reduced for the next year.
7.
The transmission system operator shall publish annually the information with regard to the balancing services procured and the related costs incurred.