Brussels, 18/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - 16 major European Transmission System Operators (TSOs) have joined together to launch a joint European capacity platform by 2013.
On Wednesday 18 April, the TSOs of Bayernets, Fluxys/TENP, GASCADE Gastransport, Gasunie Deutschland Transport Services, GRTgaz Deutschland, Nowega, ONTRAS - VNG Gastransport, OPAL NEL TRANSPORT, Open Grid Europe, terranets and Thyssengas, all of Germany, Fluxys of Belgium, Energinet.dk of Denmark, GRTgaz of France and Gas Transport Services of the Netherlands, formed an alliance on the sidelines of a conference in Amsterdam to put in place, by 2013, a common capacity platform which will allow energy suppliers in the countries concerned to book capacities at European network points operated by the various TSOs rather than have to deal with the different existing platforms (Capsquare, Eucabo, Link4Hubs and TRAC-X). While the platform name and where it is to be based are not yet known, the plan has been described by European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger as “a very promising step towards a single European internal gas market”. (EH/transl.rt)