ICGB’s Executive Officer Teodora Georgieva presented the progress on the project for gas interconnector with Greece to the members of the Fifth On February 19th ICGB AD finalized successfully the next step of the process towards the certification as an independent transmission system operator. More than four months before the deadline the project company submitted to the regulatory authorities of Greece and Bulgaria the IGB’s Network Code.  

The Network Code consists of all rules and procedures for operation of the gas transmission system of the IGB project and details on the rights and obligations of the transmission system operator and the shippers as well as:

Detailed procedures of normal operation, including nomination of capacity at IGB entry and exit points for forward and reverse flow;

• All necessary procedures for the secondary trading, which will be available to all traders;
• Congestion management procedures and the use-it-or-lose-it arrangements;
• Data publication procedures on the functionality and availability of capacity for all pipeline users.

The deadline for submission of the Network Code ends on July 1st 2019 – not later than 12 months prior to the date of entering into commercial operation of the gas interconnector. The Code has been prepared and submitted more than 4 months in advance in compliance with the project company’s aim to finalize all required procedures on time.
Following a coordination with the Bulgarian and the Greek regulators the Network Code will be published on ICGB’s website.

In August 2018 the national regulators of Greece and Bulgaria adopted а Final Joint decision for the exemption of IGB from the requirements of art. 36 of the 73/2009/EC gas directive regarding third party access, regulated tariff and ownership unbundling.  The Exemption Decision determines the applicable regulatory framework for the project during commercial operation. Within 3 months after entering of the decision into force the project company had to present for approval to the regulators the final methodology for the implementation of the IGB tariff (IGB Tariff Code). The Tariff Code was submitted on November 6th 2018 describing the final methodology for calculating IGB’s tariff in accordance with the methodology approved by the regulators for the purposes of the ICGB’s Market Test.

The approval of IGB’s Tariff Code by the national regulators is a precondition for the conclusion of the Gas Transportation Agreements with the shippers who reserved capacity through the interconnector. To this moment, the project company has signed only advanced reservation capacity agreements.

Following the approval of the Tariff and Network Code, in order to comply with the requirements for functional unbundling of the project company from the shareholders, at least 6 months before the start of commercial operation of the gas interconnector, ICGB has to submit to the regulators a Compliance Program. The Program will set out measures taken by ICGB to ensure non-discriminatory behavior and the non-disclosure of sensitive business information to the shareholders. An application for certification as an independent transmission operator will be submitted within the same deadline.

For more information:
Vladislava Tsekova
ICGB AD
Tel.: +359 2 926 38 62
Mobile: + 359 88 653 99 09

Date 22/02/2019