Developing services to improve the market GRI - G4: 4

Owing to the growth of services, the number of transportation operators in the Italian gas market has grown continually over the last decade, rising from 30 in 2003 to 139 in 2015. In the last year alone, 65 contracts were entered into for the creation of new delivery/redelivery points or upgrading of existing points, and more than 370 million cubic metres of daily transportation capacity was made available at network entry points. Access to the service was guaranteed to all operators who requested it.

Through Snam’s partner platform PRISMA¹, from 1 November 2015, operators have been able to execute gas trades by acquiring transportation capacity on a within-day, daily, monthly, quarterly and annual (up to 15 years) basis during bidding sessions scheduled on the common European calendar published by ENTSOG, This capacity is in either unbundled form, i.e. only inputs to and outputs from the Italian transportation system, or bundled form, i.e. simultaneously buying capacity from Snam and the interconnected operator at the same exchange point, thereby increasing the frequency of transactions. This initiative is part of the European project to harmonise regulations, enabling operators to plan their European gas transportation activities more easily and flexibly.

In 2015, the available storage capacity increased from 11.4 billion standard cubic metres to 11.5 billion standard cubic metres (16 billion if strategic storage is included) after the first 100 million cubic metres of the field at Bordolano was made available. There was full take-up of the offered capacity for the 2015/16 thermal year, with demand outstripping supply as early as the June 2015 auction.

In order to manage trades between operators and relations with them, over time Snam has developed unique IT systems and online portals that are continually being enhanced.