Users of the National Transmission System (NTS) require the right to take certain quantities of gas off the system in order to meet the needs of their customers. The right to offtake a given quantity of gas each day is known as exit capacity (or offtake capacity). Exit capacity is concerned with access to the network, and in particular, the right to take off gas from the NTS. Gas is taken directly from the NTS by the gas distribution businesses and by a number of large customers, known as transmission connected customers (TCCs).
Following the Gas Distribution Network (GDN) sales process, four of the GDNs that were previously owned by National Grid Gas (NGG), were sold by NGG on 1 June 2005 and are now independently owned. At the time of GDN sales it was considered important by the Authority that the fragmentation of ownership of the gas transportation network did not create the potential for inefficient investment or inefficient operational decisions at the new commercial interface between the NTS and the GDNs. Since this time, there have been ongoing developments in relation to the introduction of enduring offtake arrangements.
For further information, please refer to the decision made by the Competition Commission on 10 July 2007 following its investigation into a Uniform Network Code (UNC) modification appeal, which can be found on its website.