Joint National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) vision paper: Long-term use-it-or-lose-it (LT UIOLI)

Guidance, Correspondence and other

Publication date

Industry sector

  • Transmission Network
  • Generation and Wholesale Market

The Congestion Management Procedure (CMP) Guidelines introduced new obligations on transmission system operators (TSOs) and National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) regarding the design of congestion management procedures. Article 2.2.5 of the CMP Guidelines describes the procedure for LT UIOLI – a mechanism designed to deter capacity hoarding over the longer term. It dictates that NRAs require their TSOs to fully or partially withdraw systematically underutilised capacity when certain criteria are met.

Given the importance of the consistent application of this measure across the interconnection points between their respective member states, regulators Ofgem, Belgium's Commission de Régulation de l'Electricité et du Gaz and the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets considered it useful to elaborate on how they intend to apply these criteria in practice. This vision paper describes the current joint vision of the regulators on all the relevant elements of LT UIOLI, and sets out their common interpretation of the criteria for invoking LT UIOLI and its application.