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ACER Consultation Template. Tariff NC Article 26(5)

​Pursuant to Article 26(5) of the Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/460 of 16 March 2017 establishing a Network Code on Harmonised transmission tariff structures for gas ('TAR NC'), the Agency shall develop a template for the consultation document referred to in Article 26(1) of the TAR NC. This template shall be made available to national regulatory authorities (‘NRAs’) and transmission system operators (‘TSOs’) before 5 July 2017.                    

The template is made available to NRAs and TSOs upon request on the Agency's website on an online platform for the consultation(s) on the reference price methodology (‘RPM’) based on Article 26(1) of the TAR NC.                  

This online template is a communication channel facilitating interactions between NRAs/TSOs and the Agency in the context of the Agency’s review of the national consultations. The Agency strongly recommends its use to the NRAs/TSOs carrying out the consultation. The tool has been designed to perform several functionalities (see chart):              

  • Checklist of consultation obligations on the RPM as laid out in Article 26, as well as an interpretation to several aspects of Article 26, clarifying the criteria and the principles which will be used by the Agency in its review, with a view to support NRAs and TSOs in their effort to comply with their respective legal obligations. The checklist is implemented as an online survey for NRAs/TSOs to provide a summary of the final consultation on the RPM.
  • Submission of consultation documentation to the Agency on voluntary basis. NRAs/TSOs can opt for using alternative procedures to submit the documentation.
  • Publication of consultation summary submitted by NRAs/TSOs on the Agency’s website, on PDF format, containing the appropriate references to the national consultation document(s). NRAs/TSOs can include this file as an annex to their consultation on the RPM. These documents will be non-binding and have been prepared for informational purposes only. No rights can be derived from the information published in these document. In case of any inconsistencies between this document and the consultation documents, the latter shall prevail.
  • Stakeholders will have access to these summaries via the Agency’s website.

Once the consultation documents are received, the Agency will analyse whether all the information referred to in Article 26(1) has been published in the consultation of the RPM by the NRA/TSO, in line with Article 27(2)(a). Following this review on the completeness of the national consultations, the Agency will assess the consultations’ compliance along the criteria set out in Article 27(2)(b).     

The template makes explicit all the requirements that the Agency expects to be fulfilled by the consultations. Interpretations reflect the views of the Agency and are not intended to constitute additional legal requirements.    

Within two months following the end of the consultation on the RPM, according to Article 27(3), the Agency will publish the conclusion of its analysis for each of the received consultations.     

Whenever the format of the survey incurs in any incompatibility with the structure of the consultation, the NRS/TSO can contact the Agency to discuss the use of alternative process. In either case, the documentation received and the processes employed will be reviewed for compliance by the Agency against the requirements laid out in the TAR NC.   

Requiremen​​​ts regarding submitted docume​nts       

T​he Agency requests the NRA/TSO responsible for launching the final consultation on the RPM to follow the several requirements when submitting the consultation documentation to the Agency:                    

  • All files containing numerical data must be provided to the Agency in non-protected Excel or Excel compatible files independently of how they are published in the consultation.
  • Files containing text must be provided to the Agency in Word, Word compatible files, or PDF.
  • Files containing images must be provided to the Agency in a commonly used image formats or PDF.
  • All data must be provided in non-protected files that allow editing. If PDFs are used, they must not be protected against editing (e.g.: they must allow copying the text in the PDF).
  • Confidential information must be clearly marked as confidential. In the cases where the consultation includes confidential information, a non-confidential version of the consultation must also be provided as part of the documentation. Such version can be prepared erasing or aggregating the sensible information to render the data non-confidential.

Note: The online template and the tool for the submission of files to the Agency is implemented over a secure https connection which will be operational as of end of September 2017.       

Access to​ the online template

​The online template can be filled as of its date of publication (5 July 2017). It can be saved as a draft and can be subsequently updated following the steps of the national process until the final submission. When saving the template as a draft, the tool provides a link which is necessary to continue editing the draft.       

Once the online template is submitted, the tool provides a Case ID which allows editing the online tool post submission.         

The online template can be accessed on the followinglink provided to NRAs/TSOs carrying out the final consultation.​

Link to the checklist: link.​

The Agency’s contact point: tariff@acer.europa.eu                  

Updates:                  

  • 5 July 2017. Publication of the template.
  • 24 September 2017. Implementation of secure https connection for the online template and for the file submission tool.