Gas Act, 2001 (Act No. 48 of 2001)RegulationsPiped Gas Regulations7. Third party access to storage facilities |
| (1) | The allocation mechanism to ensure third party access to uncommitted capacity in storage facilities must comply with the following principles: |
| (a) | Use-it-or-lose-it taking into account diurnal and seasonal load profiles; |
| (b) | non-discrimination; |
| (c) | defined time periods; and |
| (d) | technical feasibility. |
| (2) | Where two or more applications for mandatory third party access are received by a storage licensee on the same date, the storage licensee must select the most attractive application, taking into account objective elements such as the proposed volumes, revenue generated and length of contract. |
| (3) | The Gas Regulator may upon receipt of a complaint, from a third party regarding a refusal for third party access to a storage facility, determine uncommitted capacity in the transmission pipeline and determine an allocation mechanism that is consistent with subregulation (1). |
| (4) | A storage facility licensee interconnected to other systems must provide sufficient information to any other transmission licensee, storage licensee, distribution licensee or reticulator to ensure that the storage of gas may take place in a manner compatible with the secure and efficient operation of the interconnected system. |
| (5) | A storage facility licensee must preserve the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information obtained in the course of carrying out its business and may not provide commercially sensitive information to a related undertaking. |
| (6) | A storage facility licensee may not discriminate between customers or classes of customers, particularly with regard to the granting of more favourable conditions to its related undertakings than to other customers or classes of customers. |
| (7) | A storage facility licensee may not discriminate in respect of— |
| (a) | the manner, content and timing of the provision of any information to customers or prospective customers as required by the Act; |
| (b) | the manner and timing of processing of applications and granting of capacity; |
| (c) | the terms and conditions of any grant of capacity and any other service to be provided to any customer or prospective customer; |
| (d) | tariff methods and prices, including but not limited to the offering and granting of any discount and the imposing of any surcharge; |
| (e) | nominations and balancing of gas entering and exiting the storage facility; and |
| (f) | scheduling of maintenance activities. |
| (8) | All parties in third party access negotiations and transactions must avoid any abuse of a dominant position and negotiations for access to the system must be in good faith. |
| (9) | The Gas Regulator may, at the request of one or more parties to negotiations for third party access to storage facilities and after consultation with the parties concerned, fix a term within which the negotiations must be completed. |
| (10) | A storage facility licensee must lodge with the Gas Regulator its guidelines for the use of the system within the first year following implementation of these regulations. |
| (11) | The information contained in the guidelines referred to in subregulation (10) must be publicly available and must be sufficient to enable potential customers to understand the procedure for obtaining access and to enter and conclude negotiations. |
| (12) | The guidelines contemplated in subregulation (10) must include— |
| (a) | a detailed description of the gas storage system indicating all inlet points and outlet points. |
| (b) | method by which the tariffs are calculated; |
| (c) | method by which a customer may request a tariff; |
| (d) | contractual terms and conditions regarding use and payment; |
| (e) | technical requirements for access to the storage facility and network; and |
| (f) | the process to request access. |
| (13) | The Energy Regulator must, when determining the uncommitted capacity for storage facilities, consider the following elements: |
| (a) | Contractual commitments; |
| (b) | type of storage facility; |
| (c) | cushion gas requirements; |
| (d) | load profile and swing requirements; |
| (e) | particular range of specifications of gas; and |
| (f) | whether or not capacity allocations are not being used to limit access to the storage facilities. |
| (14) | Storage owned and operated by a reticulator solely for reticulation purposes is exempted from these mandatory third party access regulations. |
| (15) | Storage that forms part of the process of and is within the premises of a liquefaction or regasification plant is exempted from these mandatory third party access regulations. |