Rules of balancing

The National Control Commission for Prices and Energy by its Resolution No. O3E-1802 as of 30 December 2021 approved Amber Grid Natural Gas Transmission System Balancing Rules (See Rules.pdf).

For every Balancing Period (i.e. on a daily basis) natural gas market participants shall balance their quantities of natural gas injected into the gas transmission system with the ones off-taken from the gas transmission system. If the market participant fails to balance the amount of gas, he pays imbalance charge to the Transmission System Operator, if a market participant has caused lack of gas in the transmission system or the Transmission System Operator pays imbalance charge to him, if a market participant has caused the surplus of gas in the transmission system, by applying balancing prices.

Balancing prices:

• marginal buying price - shall be deemed to equal the higher gas price (over the balancing period) among (1) the highest gas price at which the Transmission System Operator purchased gas during the balancing period, and (or) sold on the trading platform (Gas Exchange) at the Lithuanian virtual trading point, and the weighted average price of gas traded on the trading platform (Gas Exchange) at the Lithuanian virtual trading point over the balancing period, which shall be published by the trading platform operator, increased by 10 percent.

• Marginal selling price - is the lower price of the balancing gas (during the balancing period) among (1) the lowest gas price at which the Transmission System Operator purchased gas during the balancing period, and (or) sold on the trading platform (Gas Exchange) at the Lithuanian virtual trading point, and (2) the weighted average price of gas traded on the trading platform (Gas Exchange) at the Lithuanian virtual trading point over the balancing period, which shall be published by the trading platform operator, reduced by 10 percent. When calculating marginal sell and marginal buy prices only within day and day ahead short-term standardized products are used.

In case when market participants cause an imbalance and the transmission system operator does not have enough available gas resources to ensure proper operation of the gas transmission system, the transmission system operator purchases/sells gas on the natural gas exchange and/or by purchasing balancing services in accordance with bilateral agreements. The transmission system operator trades balancing gas on the natural gas exchange in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation on Trading on the Natural Gas Exchange.

According to The Rules, information about of the system users‘ balancing status shall be supplied electronic transmission service booking and administration system for each individual system user.

According to Chapter IV of the Rules,  a market participant may, by prior agreement with another market participant, transfer (refuse) its balancing responsibilities to another market participant. The market participant transferring the balancing responsibility shall inform the transmission system operator of the transfer (refuse) of balancing responsibility by submitting a transfer of balancing responsibility notification, which shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the month in which the transmission system operator approves the request for transfer of balancing responsibility.