Some shared German gas VIPs postponed to April 2022

The introduction of new high-calorie virtual interconnection points (VIPs) at the border between the soon-to-be-created Germany VTP (Trading Hub Europe) and the Dutch TTF and Belgian ZTP has been delayed by six months until 1 April 2022.

Existing VIPs between the Netherlands and Germany's high-calorie NCG and Gaspool market areas will be retained until 1 April, as will the Belgian-NCG VIP. This is despite the scheduled merger of NCG and Gaspool into a single market, operated by Trading Hub Europe (THE), from 1 October.

The introduction of the planned low-calorie TTF-THE VIP is still scheduled for 1 October, Dutch system operator GTS said. And the DK-THE VIP — connecting Denmark to the single German market — will also be introduced on 1 October. The point will combine capacity operated at Ellund by Open Grid Europe and Gasunie Deutschland — connected to the NCG and Gaspool high-calorie market areas, respectively — with Danish system operator Energinet's network.

It will not be possible to establish high-calorie and low-calorie VIPs by 1 October because of the high effort involved in the merger, a group of Germany's operators said. The exact phase-in of their introduction will be based on the respective complexity of each VIP, they said. But the operators will continue preparing the merger of the low-calorie VIPs and define a timeline for the high-calorie TTF-THE VIP merger separately, GTS said.

It will be possible to book capacity at the low-calorie TTF-THE VIP for the first time at day-ahead auctions on 30 September. All auctions for longer-term capacity products for the period after 1 October will be held using the existing low-calorie NCG and Gaspool VIPs until the merger. Contracted capacity will be transferred automatically to the new TTF-THE VIP after the monthly auctions for October, scheduled for 20 September. GTS will inform each capacity holder of their new booking IDs resulting from the transfer. Shippers will also still be able to transfer parts of contracts for capacity at underlying interconnection points to the merged VIP, but the service will not be available in September.

The first auctions for capacity at the high-calorie TTF-THE and TTF-ZTP VIPs are yet to be scheduled. German system operators had previously announced that they would not offer capacity at VIPs in Germany's single gas market area at annual firm capacity auctions in July.

The transfer of contracts for the high-calorie VIPs will be handled similarly, GTS said. Transport contracts already concluded at the existing NCG and Gaspool VIPs will be transferred to the new VIPs and relevant operators as soon as the VIPs are set up, the German operators said.

GTS will provide further updates on exact timings once the date for the VIPs' creation is final, the Dutch operator said.

Plans for existing VIPs at the German-Czech border will not be affected by the delay, as the relevant operators do not intend to merge the existing VIP Brandov-Gaspool and VIP Waidhaus-NCG. The points will continue to exist post-merger and will be renamed VIP Brandov and VIP Waidhaus from 1 October (see table).

By Jacob Mandel