Today the Utility Regulator is publishing a decision to amend the 2016 licence fee methodologies document to include gas storage. An annual fee of £2,000 (to increase annually with the Retail Price Index) for gas storage has now been introduced.
This follows on from our consultation to amend the licence fee methodology. There was one response to the consultation.
Licensed utility companies in Northern Ireland are required to pay an annual fee under the terms of their licence. The actual mechanism, by which such a fee is determined, is as outlined in our licence fee methodologies paper. The previous document, published in September 2016, only allowed for licence fees for supply and conveyances licences, but not for storage licences. The gas licence fee methodologies document has now been updated to reflect the fee for gas storage licences.
There is currently only one gas storage licensee – Islandmagee Energy Limited (IMEL).
One consultation response was received. This was from IMEL. They did not object to the proposal to introduce a gas storage licence fee and considered the proposal in the consultation was in accordance with the relevant gas storage licence condition.
The introduction of this fee will apply from 1 April 2022 onwards and while currently only applicable to IMEL, it will similarly apply to any future gas storage licence holders (save that the fee is amended at a later point).