Available transport capacity to Slovakia from Hungary will increase by 50pc from 20 February, the two countries' transmission system operators (TSOs) said on Friday.
The operators said in late January that they planned to lift capacity at the Velke Zlievce/Balassagyarmat interconnection point towards Slovakia by roughly 25.4 GWh/d from its existing technical capacity of 51 GWh/d.
This additional capacity will now be offered in the upcoming daily and monthly capacity auctions taking place on 19 February on the RBP platform, meaning that more gas can flow to Slovakia from Hungary from the start of the 20 February gas day onwards.
The operators were originally aiming to have this additional capacity available by July so that it could be offered in the annual capacity auctions. But they had said that the upgrade could happen sooner if the two sides agreed on "adjusting the respective technical parameters" and the Hungarian regulator approved this by issuing Hungarian TSO FGSZ with a modified operational licence.
FGSZ said in its modification request that it held "intensive discussions" with Slovak TSO Eustream about the capacity increase partially to be able to "contribute to the intensification of transit through Hungary", according to Mekh. Mekh also said that increasing "transport with a purpose of export can have a favourable effect on capacity fees, as the capacity increase is realised without a need for investment".
The Hungarian day-ahead price has held a consistent discount to its Slovak counterpart in recent months, and frequently to Austria as well, ensuring outflows towards Slovakia on every day since 9 September. The Hungarian day-ahead market's discount to Slovakia has averaged €1.22/MWh so far this month, and flows towards Slovakia have held at just under nameplate capacity, averaging 50.3 GWh/d over 1-15 February.
