Consultation on revised gas licence fee methodology for gas storage published

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, the latest version of which was published in September 2016.

In relation to gas licensees, the 2016 methodology allows for licence fees for supply and conveyances licences, but not for storage licences.

Today (29 April 2022) we are launching a consultation to amend the licence fee methodology to introduce an annual fee of £2,000 (to increase annually with the Retail Price Index ) for gas storage. There is currenly only one gas storage licensee – Islandmagee Energy Limited. This fee would similarly apply to any future gas storage licensees.

We anticipate the introduction of this fee to apply from 1 April 2022 onwards.

We have also published this consultation on the CitizenSpace online portal.

Please sent responses to Email: Gas_networks_responses@uregni.gov.uk with cc to ruairi.mccann@uregni.gov.uk

Your response may be made public by the Utility Regulator. If you do not want all or part of your response or name made public, please state this clearly in the response by marking your response as ‘CONFIDENTIAL’.

If you want other information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this, it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential.

Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018.

As stated in the GDPR Privacy Statement for consumers and stakeholders, any personal data contained within your response will be deleted once the matter being consulted on has been concluded though the substance of the response may be retained.

Copies of all documents will be made available in large print, Braille, audio cassette and a variety of relevant minority languages if required.