The gas market has undergone major changes during the first part of the year, which has contributed significantly to the operating environment of Gasgrid’s transmission business and to the gas market development. Due to the rapid changes on the gas markets, the focus on the operations of Gasgrid transmission business unit has shifted to the security of supply issues and continual dialogue with gas market participants, the Baltic transmission system operators (TSOs) and regulatory authorities.
Our customer service channels will merge – in the future you can contact us at customerservice@gasgrid.fi
On 10 May 2022, we will introduce a new service request system in our customer service, which aims to improve the quality and reachability of our customer service by providing a single channel for customer contacts. For our customers, this change will be visible as service request numbers in the reply messages, and our old customer service channels info@gasgrid.fi, commercial@gasgrid.fi, technical@gasgrid.fi, biogascertificate@gasgrid.fi and go@gasgrid.fi will be disabled from customer service use. In the future, you can reach us from one address: customerservice@gasgrid.fi. For old channels, contacts are automatically forwarded during the transition period.
Market review
Finnish gas consumption for the first quarter of 2022 settled at the level of 4,9 TWh. During January-February, the gas flow through Balticconnector was from Estonia to Finland whereas in March the flow was to the opposite direction. The geopolitical situation and the resulting uncertainties in the gas market have had a declining effect on gas consumption and rising gas energy prices. You can find the latest market data review here.
Operations in gas market disruptions
Questions about security of supply have been raised strongly from our customers. Security of supply and preparations for exceptional situations play a key role in Gasgrid operations. This has contributed to the need to postpone the development project for comprehensive balance management services announced at the end of last year.
Gasgrid urges market participants to carefully read the following material concerning the operation of the Finnish gas market in the event of a supply disruption, which includes descriptions of operating methods and the responsibilities of market participants at different crisis levels. The material will be launched in English next week on our website.
Preparation for LNG entries
Gasgrid is preparing for the launch of commercial operations of Hamina LNG terminal. According to Hamina LNG’s press release, the LNG terminal will start the commissioning phase, which aims at commercial commissioning in October 2022. Gasgrid is preparing for commercial commissioning, including the standard capacity products to be offered by the TSO and nomination processes.
In early April, Gasgrid Finland was tasked with researching the renting of an LNG floating terminal in co-operation with the Estonian TSO, Elering AS. This Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) type vessel would have a significant impact on Finland’s security of supply, providing a significant new source of gas energy supply and enabling Finland to distance itself from the dependence on Russian gas. Port structures will be built for the LNG vessel on the coasts of Finland and Estonia, ensuring the security of supply in the event of long-term gas supply disruptions in both countries.
The LNG terminal is scheduled to be in use in Finland next winter. If the Finnish port structures are not completed within this schedule, the vessel will be temporarily located in Estonia. The final location for the LNG floating terminal will be in Southern Finland. The progress of the project will be reported on our website. You can find the latest release on the subject here.
Register of guarantees of origin, and market role-specific framework agreements
The register of guarantees of origin was introduced at the beginning of April. The first registrations have been successfully completed. As regards guarantees of origin, the obligation to certify and verify begins on 1 July 2022. You can find more information on guarantees of origin from on our website. In addition, Gasgrid is currently working on an update project for market role-specific framework agreements. As the project progresses, we will inform market participants on identified needs for amendments.
Excise taxing
The Act on excise taxes on electricity and certain fuels entered into force on 1 January 2022. The excise tax act recognizes biogas. As a result, biogas has its own tax levels depending on the use and production method, sustainability criteria and the raw material fractions used in production. As Gasgrid is acting as a taxpayer, the amendments to the excise tax act also affected our tax collection policies towards market participants. As a result of the change, market participants engaged in the sale, end-use and supply of biogas must notify Gasgrid of their taxable and tax-free biogas supplies for end-use.
