EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR ENERGY
Directorate B - Internal Energy Market
Gas cross-Regional Group meeting
Thursday 22nd January 2015, 9:30-16:40
1. The establishment of the 2nd list of Project of common interest
The Commission presented the updated schedule of the 2nd PCI evaluation for gas,
which will include a delay of a month due to the withdrawal of the South Stream
Project by Gazprom. The TYNDP will be published in mid-March. This and the
following meeting will be used to discuss and agree on the methodology and to
prepare for project specific CBA.
2. State of play of the 2nd PCI evaluation process (Commission)
The Commission provided an update on the consultation on the candidate PCIs.
Comments:
- NGOs: Due to the delay of the PCI evaluation and the publishing date of the
TYNDP, they requested a delay in the Consultation to allow respondents
sufficient time to take the new TYNDP into account
Conclusion:
- consultation period will be extended to March 31st)
Member State approval of the candidate projects on their territory: all Member States
gave their approval, with the exception of Spain, whose approval of one storage
project was not given. Spain needs to present its substantiated arguments to the
relevant Regional Group
3. Updated Terms of Reference of the Regional Groups
The updated ToR was presented. No comments from participants and no rejections.
The Terms of Reference was adopted
.
4. Project evaluation process and tool
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) presented its Draft assessment method for the 2nd
PCI list.
The Cost-Benefit Analysis is conducted by ENTSO-G and the project promoters and
will include a large amount of data and qualitative information as results. To make
this information more manageable for the Regional Groups to analyse, JRC was asked
to provide a method to simplify / aggregate the CBA results without loss of
information.
The assessment method aims aggregating, through statistical methods, the several
CBA results (several indicators per scenarios and price configurations) per project
into the four specific criteria of the TEN-E Regulation.
As a first step, JRC proposed to decrease the number of scenarios (green-grey, low -
high) and price configurations (altogether 13) by using Green, low infrastructure
scenario and the price configuration for LNG vs pipeline gas.
An overall indicator for cost per project will also be calculated that can be compared
to the benefits.
Comments / Conclusions:
- The green scenario is preferred as it is the closest to the 2030 framework
- Selection of price configurations should be tailored to the Regions, ENTSOG will
provide guidelines on more and less relevant price configurations for each region
- The aggregation of indicators into one value per project was not supported; it should
stop at the level of the 4 TEN-E criteria
- Snapshots at each main step of the aggregation process will be shared with the
Regional Groups
- JRC will provide a simple example with a few numbers to explain the statistical
methods of aggregation it proposes
- Further comments to the method in writing to be sent to COM by February 2nd, next
draft mid-February
5. PCI Implementation Monitoring (ACER)
ACER presented the PCI monitoring process and interface of the 1st list of PCIs.
6. The TYNDP process (ENTSOG)
The TYNDP will be published in mid-March. The results of the project specific
modelling will be handed over to project promoters at the end of March. The project
specific CBA templates will be sent out soon and ENTSO-G requests comments and
suggestions.
7. Eligibility of projects for PCI evaluation
COM presented the eligibility criteria and the list of projects that are proposed to be
excluded. After some discussion, the below projects will be excluded as agreed in the
Regional Groups:
The Commission stressed it has requested additional information from a number of
projects, which may still be subject to an assessment against the eligibility criteria.
8. Discussion on projects, groups and clusters
COM presented each priority corridor and highlighted issues that need to be clarified.
Some discussions took place during the meetings, with further discussions on a
bilateral basis. Discussions about projects, groups and clusters will continue in the
next Regional Group meetings.