Following our Call for Evidence (CfE), Minded-to-Consultation (MTC), and Initial Impact Assessment (IA), we are publishing a statutory consultation proposing to modify Special Condition 9.13, Appendix 2 of National Grid Gas Plc (NGG) Gas Transporter Licence (‘the Licence’), to allow BBL Company V.O.F. (‘BBLC’) Shippers access to Licence Baseline Exit Capacity at Bacton.
In 2019, BBLC completed a project to facilitate physical reverse flow of gas from Bacton to the Netherlands. The current arrangements in NGG’s Licence stipulate that the Licence Baseline Exit Capacity for the Bacton (BBL) offtake point is set at 0 GWh/d and NGG cannot offer firm exit capacity to BBLC’s Shippers. As such, BBLC considers that it does not have equal and transparent access to the existing available NGG exit capacity at Bacton.
This Statutory consultation is accompanied by the Final Impact Assessment, which analyses the following main options:
Our Final IA assesses whether the three options promote competition in exit arrangements to the benefit of existing and future consumers in relation to gas conveyed through pipes, whether they promote network efficiency, help achieve the UK’s Net Zero targets, and are compliant with the retained EU legislation. We conclude that Option 2 best delivers our principal objective of protecting consumers' interests, wherever appropriate by promoting effective competition.
We are issuing a statutory consultation notice to inform industry of our intent to modify NGG’s Licence, ie to replace “Bacton (IUK)” Aggregated System Entry point (“ASEP”) and “Bacton (BBL)” ASEP with a new exit point, Bacton (exit) Interconnection Point (IP) (“Bacton (exit) IP”) in Appendix 2, in Part E of Special Condition 9.13.
Please send any views on the issues raised in this letter and the accompanying statutory consultation by 23 August 2021.