Gas in the transportation sector

In this edition, I will “annoy“ you, dear readers, a bit with statistics about balancing, system control energy and conversion. Of course, I think it is necessary. I realised this in particular during a Gaspool shippers’ meeting. Why? Gaspool does not currently charge any flexibility charge because the market area operator (MAO) does not buy and sell system control energy in rank 1 of the merit order list (MOL). The reason is explained in this edition. And regarding all aspects of the balancing system, interesting developments take place that may be important for market participants. Unfortunately, I do not have enough space to deal with all of them. But what I left out here can be found in the next edition. One interesting aspect is the differences between NCG and Gaspool in particular against the background of a likely merger of the two market areas. The TSOs and MAOs will have a lot to discuss.

What else will you find in this edition? The already announced interview with Ludwig Möhring and Jens Andersen about gas mobility. VW is serious about it, but questions remain. I had a very long talk with Vattenfall about their positioning of the sales and trading business. Vattenfall wants to grow in Germany. Three of the company’s responsible managers from the ‚Markets‘ business area explained to me how this is planned to work.

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Topic of the Month: Gas in the transportation sector

In the last edition, ener|gate Gasmarkt introduced the new CNG initiative of the Volkswagen Group and seven companies from the gas industry and the filling station sector. Just as a reminder: until 2025 one million CNG-fuelled cars are to be on German roads and they may chose among 2,000 filling stations. Already in the last edition, the interview with Ludwig Möhring from Wingas and Jens Andersen from VW was announced. ener|gate Gasmarkt wanted to know from both how the ambitious target can be achieved and why in particular VW sees a new opportunity for CNG mobility.

Mr Möhring is the managing director of the gas supplier WINGAS and also supervisory board member of the industry association Zukunft Erdgas. Mr Andersen has worked for the Volkswagen Group since 1990. He had different senior management positions. Since 2015 he is head of the group’s technology strategy in the Group’s business development unit. He is the Group’s representative for natural gas mobility and member of the advisory board of Zukunft Erdgas.

ener|gate Gasmarkt: Mr Andersen, over the last 15 years, only around 100,000 CNG-fuelled cars were sold in Germany. You want to achieve one million cars until 2025. What do you want to do differently?

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Framework conditions

Amendment of the ordinance provision on access to the gas networks

In the last edition, the amendment of the ordinance provision on access to the gas networks (GasNZV) was described at length. The focus was on the merger of the two market areas but all other changes were also listed. But fortunately, regulatory managers have read the document more carefully than ener|gate Gasmarkt has and pointed out to one missing adjustment. Paragraph 10 of the provision was erased completely. The provision allowed the TSOs to introduce an overbooking and a buy back mechanism as a measure to deal with congestion management. That option was never used. The ministry now argues that the rules for the introduction of such a mechanism are included in the European regulation on congestion management anyway. The problem: The European rules are valid only for border and market area interconnection points. At least representatives from single storage operators would have preferred the paragraph to remain in the ordinance provision to at least potentially allow a more efficient capacity provision at storage connection points. In many cases, a market participant said that this was the most efficient way to optimise the capacity offer. The storage connection points are not included in the European regulation.

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