TSO Obligations under Forward Capacity Allocation Regulation

The Utility Regulator has today, 14 February 2018, published its decision on the assignment of TSO obligations under Article 1(3) of the Forward Capacity Allocation (FCA) Regulation.

The FCA Regulation lays down detailed rules for calculating and buying cross-zonal capacity in the forward markets as well as setting rules for hedging price risk between bidding zones in these markets.  It directs the establishment of a single allocation platform at European level and places a number of obligations on Transmission System Operators (TSOs) in EU Member States.

TSOs are required to comply unless, in the case of a Member State where more than one TSO exists, these obligations are assigned under Article 1(3) of the FCA Regulation. At the request of the respective Departments, the Utility Regulator in Northern Ireland and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) in Ireland reviewed the obligations arising from the FCA Regulation and allocated each to one (or more) of the TSOs present within the all-island market based on the functions that the relevant TSOs currently perform in the SEM.