The Finnish gas market from regulatory point of view

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1 The Finnish gas market from regulatory point of view 4 October 2007 / Baltic Gas Market Minifora Petteri Pousi / Analyst Energy Market Authority / Finland

2 Structure of the presentation Importance of gas in energy supply (power, heat, industrial) Security of supply Market opening Gas trading Unbundling Regulation of network tariffs Regulation of gas supply Etc.

3 Importance of gas in energy supply (power, heat, industrial) 11 % share of primary energy Source: Finnish Natural Gas Association

4 Importance of gas in energy supply (power, heat, industrial) Source: Finnish Natural Gas Association

5 Security of supply According to the amendments of Natural Gas Market Act, the role of regulator in security of supply issues is to monitor the balance between supply and demand in natural gas, the quality and maintenance of networks and measures to cover the peak demand and avoid the supply shortages Based on article 5, (2003/55/EY) Yearly reporting duty, the report is available on our website

6 The Finnish natural gas transmission network Source: Gasum

7 Market opening Exemption from legal or operational unbundling of transmission network operations and market opening (28 article, 2003/55/EC) The exemption is effective as long as Finland does not have a direct connection to the natural gas network of any other EU Member State and as long as Finland has only one main natural gas supplier

8 Market structure of the Finnish natural gas market Relatively isolated with pipeline connection only to the importing country Russia Only one importer and wholesale supplier Gasum Gasum also owns and operates the natural gas transmission network and is the TSO, owns also DSO Gasum s ownership is divided between the State of Finland, Fortum, E.ON Ruhrgas and Gazprom

9 Description of the retail market Small-scale local distribution 32 local DSO s, approx. 80 % are wholly or mainly owned by municipalities, the rest 20 % are owned by other companies from the industry The size of the gas retail market in Finland is relatively small, the retail supply of gas covers only about 5 per cent of the total amount of gas used in Finland In Finland there are only about 36,000 customers in the natural gas market, less than 150 customers heavy industrial users as well as power and district heating plants use more than 95 per cent of the total gas consumption The largest customer segment (31,000) consists of households who buy natural gas for cooking.

10 Gas trading (on secondary market) A separate market place, operated by Gas Exchange, has been establish for trading on the secondary market Large-consumers, buying at least 5 million cubic meters per year are eligible users for secondary market The volume in the secondary market was 415 GWh in the year 2006, which covered 0,92 per cent of natural gas consumption in Finland Well-functioning secondary market, but there are no real economical impacts or competitive features at the national level Sort of balancing mechanism

11 Unbundling Covers only accounting (unbundled accounts) Finland has not applied legal or operative unbundling in DSO s because Member States are free to decide that the unbundling provisions are not applied to DSO s with fewer than customers. All Finnish DSO s fall below the limit set by the directive

12 Regulation of network tariffs Ex-ante methodology decisions First four-year regulatory period Rate of return model (nominal pre-tax WACC 9-10% (for TSO), Regulatory asset base reflects replacement costs, so far without efficiency incentives) Additional risk-premium (3 % for TSO & 1 % for DSO s) for expansion investments and other risks based on Gas Market Act More detailed definition on our website: or please check The National Report 2007 to the European Commission (is also available on our website)

13 Regulation of gas supply According to Natural Gas Act The Energy Market Authority has ex-post regulatory powers related to pricing of natural gas sales Regulatory challenge, monopoly activity like network business Reasonable margin or EBIT-% for gas sales..?

14 Future development The Energy Market Authority prepared a discussion paper in 2006 to evaluate the development of the natural gas market in Finland and the related legislation and to chart the possible development needs in legislation and official control 3rd package? Balticconnector? LNG?

15 Thank you for your attention! Phone: