sou · GNB3115d1 · 2000-01-01 00:00:00 — bör få i upp- drag att i sin tillsyn bedöma om transporttariffer och övriga villkor är skäliga och utformade på sakliga grunder. Ledningsägare bör, i enlighet med naturgasmarknadsdirektivet, vara skyldiga att offentliggöra sin transporttariff och andra villkor och skyl- digheter för att utnyttja systemet. För en effektiv reglering av ett naturligt monopol krävs att den regleran- de myndigheten kan kontrollera verksamheternas ekonomiska resultat. Motivet till detta är bl.a. att ett monopolföretag kan försöka hindra till- träde genom att ta ut för höga priser. Företaget kan t.ex. också försöka påverka konkurrensen inom andra verksamhetsområden. Under förut- sättning att ett naturgasföretag bedriver såväl monopolverksamhet som konkurrensutsatt verksamhet föreligger en uppenbar risk för konkur- rensproblem genom att ett ekonomiskt överskott från monopolverksam- het kan användas för att subventionera konkurrensutsatt verksamhet, s.k. korssubventionering. I en sådan integrerad verksamhet är det komplice- rat att analysera prissättningen på de olika nyttigheterna. Det är som re- gel också mycket svårt att fastställa om överskott från monopolverksam- het används för att subventionera den konkurrensutsatta verksamheten. Genom en långtgående särredovisning ökas förutsättningarna för att skapa en effektiv tillsyn och riskerna för t.ex. korssubventionering mins- kar. Vi föreslår därför (med vissa undantag) att den verksamhet som be- drivs i integrerade naturgasföretag skall särredovisas för verksamhets- grenarna överföring, distribution och lagring av naturgas. Särredovis- ning av dessa verksamheter skall ske som särskilda rörelsegrenar. Om monopolverksamheten och den konkurrensutsatta verksamheten kan hållas isär finns det, enligt vår bedömning, från konkurrenssynpunkt, ingen väsentlig skillnad mellan krav på särredovisning i den interna bok- föringen och längre gående krav som t.ex. skilda juridiska personer. Er- farenheterna från ellagstiftningsområdet i talar dock för att det kan krävas detaljerade bestämmelser och kontroll. Enligt utredningens bedömning krävs således tydliga och klara riktlinjer för redovisningarna och att dessa redovisningar följs upp av tillsynsmyndigheten på ett aktivt sätt. De särskilda redovisningarna för verksamheterna överföring, distri- bution och lagring av naturgas skall sändas in till den myndighet som regeringen bestämmer. Revisor hos ett företag som bedriver överföring, distribution eller lag- ring av naturgas skall granska den särskilda redovisningen av dessa verksamheter. Revisor skall även uttala om redovisningen skett enligt gällande bestämmelser. När handel med naturgas skall ske i konkurrens uppstår frågan om nuva- rande kommunalrättsliga regler är ändamålsenliga för de kommunala fö- retag som agerar på naturgasmarknaden. De kommunalrättsliga regler som i huvudsak är aktuella är lokaliseringsprincipen, likställighetsprin- cipen och självkostnadsprincipen. som bedriver distribution av naturgas är för när- varande undantagna från likställighets- och självkostnadsprinciperna, och verksamheten skall därmed bedrivas på affärsmässiga grunder. Fö- retagen är dock inte undantagna från lokaliseringsprincipen och verk- samheten skall därför vara knuten till kommunens område eller dess in- nevånare. görs ingen skillnad i lagstiftningen mellan transport- eller ledningsverksamhet och handelsverksamhet vad avser naturgas. Då naturgaslagen träder i kraft kommer dock en åtskillnad att göras mellan dessa två verksamheter. En principiell fråga är om kommunernas möjligheter att bedriva nä- ringsverksamhet bör underlättas ytterligare. När det gäller naturgas finns det, enligt vår bedömning, mycket som pekar på att ett undantag från lo- kaliseringsprincipen kan vara motiverat för kommunala företag som be- driver handel med naturgas. Även de kommunala företag som bedriver transport av naturgas i den egna kommunen bör få bedriva sådan verksamhet utanför kommungrän- sen. Undantaget från kommunallagens lokaliseringsprincip gäller dock endast om syftet är att uppnå en ändamålsenlig naturgasverksamhet. Verksamheten får därför endast bedrivas i geografisk närhet till företa- gets naturgasverksamhet i den egna kommunen. handelsverksamhet med naturgas är en konkurrensutsatt verksamhet och därför bör ett kommunalt naturgasföretag kunna agera på samma villkor som andra aktörer. Sådan verksamhet bör därför be- drivas på affärsmässiga grunder. För ett kommunalt naturgasföretags transportverksamhet kommer naturgaslagens bestämmelser om skäliga villkor för kunders tillträde till naturgasledningarna att gälla. Det är viktigt att naturgaslagens regler, och de föreskrifter och villkor som har meddelats med stöd av denna, följs. Därför bör det finnas regler om tillsyn. Tillsynen bör avse efterlevnaden inte bara av vad som före- skrivits om framdragande och användande av naturgasledningar, inklu- sive olika naturgasanläggningar, utan även reglerna om återställning. Tillsynen bör vidare omfatta kontroll av skäligheten av villkoren för transport av naturgas för annans räkning samt för anslutning till natur- gasledningar. I denna tillsyn ingår också att bestämma vem som inled- ningsvis skall betraktas som en s.k. berättigad kund. För att kunna utöva tillsynen bör tillsynsmyndigheten ha rätt att in- fordra de upplysningar och handlingar som behövs för tillsynen. Myn- digheten bör ha befogenhet att meddela förelägganden för att åstadkom- ma rättelse av felaktiga beteenden. I myndighetens övriga uppgifter ingår att utfärda föreskrifter och råd samt att bereda koncessionsärenden. Därutöver bör myndigheten lämna information och råd samt bedriva allmän uppföljnings- och bevaknings- verksamhet. verksamhet skall finansieras genom en årlig avgift, som betalas av de naturgasföretag som skall sända in särredovis- ningar enligt naturgaslagen. Det föreligger många likheter vad gäller tillsynen enligt ellagen och naturgaslagen. Enligt utredningens uppfattning är det viktigt att t ill- synsverksamheten enligt både naturgaslagen och ellagen har den styrka och självständighet som krävs för att fortsätta att driva avregleringen av naturgas- och elmarknaden på ett effektivt sätt. Vi föreslår att regeringen låter utreda huruvida tillstånds- och tillsynsärenden samt normgivning avseende både ellagen och naturgaslagen skall handhas av en självstän- dig myndighet. On 22 1998, Parliament and adopted Directive 98/30/EC on common rules for the internal market for natural gas (Chapter 7). The Natural Gas Market Directive is aimed at increasing the competition on the gas market and creating an internal market for natural gas. To achieve this, the Directive includes provisions for ensuring that owners of transmission and distribution networks will allow other players access to these networks. The Directive is much more far-reaching and comprehensive than the present Swedish legislation in the field of natural gas (Chapter 6). The main task of the committee is to submit a proposal for natural gas legislation that will meet the requirements of the new Directive. According to the committee directives, the work on the new legislation should aim at the regulations serving as a basis for a socio-economically efficient market. However, it should also be borne in mind that the Swedish natural gas market is less developed than the markets in most other European countries, and that a lack of equilibrium in the opening of the gas markets should be avoided. Current international deliberations concerning the natural gas network in the Nordic countries and the Baltic Sea region should also be taken into account. Chapter 1 gives more detailed particulars of the points of departure for the work of the committee and the implementation of the work. The report is arranged in the form three main parts, i.e. a background part, a part describing the points of departure, and a proposals part. Chapter 2 presents a review of some fundamental aspects of natural gas. This relates, for example, to characteristics, fields of application, and the supply of and demand for natural gas. Natural gas consists of gaseous hydrocarbons, the main component of which is methane. The gas also contains small quantities of nitrogen and unmeasurable quantities of heavy metals, and its combustion produces less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels. Natural gas is predominantly transported in underground pipes. A pipeline system consists principally of transmission and distribution pipes. In many cases, the gas is transported by its inherent pressure. If higher transmission capacities are needed, compressor stations are built as necessary in order to increase the gas pressure and thus the transmission capacity of the pipes. The gas delivery is metered and the pressure is reduced in metering and control stations (MC stations). The laying of pipes demands a certain amount of land area. This area is greatest during the laying stage, which consists of operations such as clearing, felling, of transport roads and excavation of pipe trenches. When the pipe-laying work has been completed, the land can be restored for agricultural use. However, some impact on the land may occur. As an example, loss of harvest may occur during the construction year. In forested terrain, a 7-metre wide cleared lane must be left when the work has been completed. The principal effect of a gas pipeline on forestry is the loss of production from the cleared lane. The world's known reserves of natural gas are expected to last for more than 65 years at the present extraction rate (about 185 years if the possible or probable reserves are included). In Europe, the reserves are concentrated to , the and . However, a large proportion of the world's gas reserves is in the vicinity of Europe, e.g. in , and . Europe accounts for around 13 percent of world production of natural gas, and around 20 percent of the consumption. This represents a significant import dependence. The imports originate principally from and . By far the biggest gas producers in Europe are , the and . In Europe, the importance of natural gas as a source of energy is of a relatively recent date. However, the proportion of gas in primary energy consumption has risen from around 7 percent in 1970 to more than 20 percent in 1997. This has mainly taken place at the expense of oil and coal. In the EU, natural gas is now the second biggest source of energy after oil. The EU expects the consumption of natural gas to increase by 45–70 percent between now and the year 2020. to its properties, natural gas has a number of applications. It is used to varying extents in sectors such as electricity and heat generation, industry, single-family houses and larger premises, and also for transport. The natural gas network in Europe is extensive. Most of Europe (including ) is interconnected in a natural gas network. A large proportion of the supply is from sources in the North Sea, North and , which are thus also linked to system. Chapter 3 includes an analysis of the gas market structure. The natural gas market can be said to differ from conventional markets in a number of areas, and the purpose of the chapter is mainly to outline the features that characterize the gas market. The extraction/production, transport and sale of natural gas can be regarded as a "network industry". A network industry is characterized by its high dependence on an infrastructure in the form of a network that interconnects the production of the basic product of the industry and the end consumers of these products. The fact that the conditions for competition and market-governed pricing and capacity utilization of network industries differ from those of "ordinary" industries is due to two circumstances. The first of these is that there are generally significant benefits of scale in the construction and operation of the infrastructure ("transport network") of network industries. The benefits of scale result in the cost of maintaining a certain transport capacity being lower in a relatively large-scale transport network than it is in two or more parallel transport networks that together have the same capacity. If these benefits of scale are significant, the "production" of transport services is a natural monopoly. The other circumstance of significance to the conditions for competition and market-governed pricing and capacity utilization is that network industries often offer vertical integration benefits, i.e. the costs of producing and delivering a certain quantity of the basic product will be lower if the utilization of the production plants and transport infrastructure are coordinated within the framework of integrated operations. Another characteristic of the natural gas market is that the investments necessary for a natural gas infrastructure which is significant from the energy supply viewpoint are not only large, but are also irreversible in all important respects, i.e. the pipework basically cannot be put to any alternative use. In addition, the pipelines and other parts of the infrastructure have a very long useful life. As a result of the combination of large scale, irreversibility and a long useful life, investments of this type generally involve a significant economic risk. The magnitude of this risk is dependent on the capacity utilization and the solvency of the network users during the life cycle of the plant. These circumstances depend, in turn, on how much natural gas the end demand and how much they are willing to pay for it. The prices that the network owners can command also depend on the import prices and the taxation of natural gas. The traditional method for reducing the economic risks of the network owners has been vertical integration of the transmission and supply, combined with long-term contracts with . All western European natural gas supply has traditionally been based on long-term contracts. Large and long contracts have been regarded as representing an important condition for guaranteeing a return on the high capital investment in production. These have also secured the utilization of the transport network and improved the security of supply. The long- term agreements are generally drawn up as "take or pay" agreements. In such agreements, the customer undertakes to accept a minimum volume and the to deliver a maximum volume. The customer must pay for the minimum volume even if the natural gas consumption has not attained the contracted minimum level. The pricing principles applied on the natural gas market differs from those employed on customary markets. The natural gas price is generally based on the alternative cost the customer would have to pay, normally for oil. On gas markets that have been opened to competition, such as in , the pricing is set instead in relation to the gas price offered by other suppliers, i.e. the gas has acquired its "own" price. The gas market in Western Europe has been characterized by strong monopolistic elements. The combination of benefits of scale in the transport network and vertical integration benefits between production and transport are the most important reasons for most network industries in many countries having long had a dominating, vertically integrated, often state-owned company. The dominating company has usually also been responsible for the construction of the infrastructure. However, the growth in demand and the technical development have gradually created new conditions, so that the traditional structure is no longer the best for promoting efficiency and low prices. New technology in particular has reduced the benefits of vertical integration between production and transport. On the whole, this development has created the conditions for an industrial structure in which the infrastructure is operated as a natural monopoly, while production/imports and sales to the end users take place in competition and are based on free pricing. Important changes have taken place in recent years with the aim of increasing the competition. This applies principally to , which now has a completely deregulated gas market, i.e. all have the right to choose their suppliers. Chapter 4 describes the Swedish natural gas market in aspects such as extent, players, agreements, volumes and utilization. is a small player on the natural gas market, and we have neither reserves nor any production of natural gas. Since 1985, we have been buying natural gas from Danish fields. The gas network has been built gradually and now covers more than 25 municipalities in southernmost and on the . transmission pipeline runs between and , and branch pipelines and distribution pipes are connected to it. The transmission pipeline has an annual capacity of 2 billion m3 of gas, which corresponds to . By installing compressors, the capacity can be increased to around . The national market in is characterized by a few players with strong monopolistic elements. All natural gas is imported by . The company sells natural gas to local and regional distribution companies, to electricity and heat generation utilities, and to end users. also owns and operates the Swedish transmission pipeline. On individual local markets, the distributors basically have a monopoly. Among the distributors, is biggest and delivers around 75 percent of the gas consumed in . In some areas, sells gas to local sub-distributors, who have built local distribution networks. The agreements and pricing on the Swedish natural gas market basically follow the make-up described in Chapter 3. The contract between and the Danish supplier, /S, is of a take or pay nature and has a duration of about 20 years. It expires in 2003, 2006 and 2010. The agreements with the distributors are of a similar nature to the import agreements. Natural gas accounts for less than 2 percent of the total energy supply in . However, in the areas in which natural gas has been introduced, it accounts for around 20 percent of the energy supply, i.e. around the same as in Europe. Natural gas has basically replaced oil in industry, in combined heat and power (CHP) generation and in district heating stations. Out of the total volume consumed in , more than 42 percent are used for electric power and heat generation, around 40 percent in industry, and about 17 percent in households, other and smaller industrial plants. The natural gas used by households for heating accounts for only 3–4 percent of the total consumption. An optimistic estimate is that the total potential for connection to the present pipe network is around 1.5 billion m3 of natural gas. volume increase is likely mainly for CHP generation, but the expansion of CHP is considered to be hampered by the make-up of the tax system and the low electricity prices. A very large proportion of the industrial plants in the existing area are now connected to the gas system. However, the household sector has a relatively low proportion of connection which is largely due to district heating being well established within the region. Chapter 5 contains a review of the natural gas issue in , in neighbouring countries and in Europe. Natural gas has acquired growing importance for energy supplies in the Baltic Sea region. The consensus of opinion is that the natural gas market will increase substantially in the immediate future. and the Baltic States (and also many Eastern European countries) which are connected only to the Russian supply network are looking for alternative supply paths and suppliers. Interconnection of the natural gas networks in the Baltic Sea region and a connection to the Western European gas network would increase the supply opportunities, improve the security of supply and boost the competition in the entire region. It would also provide scope for substantially increased storage capacity. New supply paths through the Baltic Sea region are also of great interest to the consumer countries in Western Europe. A larger number and more secure supply paths from would also increase the security of supply and the competition on gas market. Since dependence on imports will increase, efforts are also made to increase imports and establish new supply paths from countries such as and . For natural reasons, is very interested in a larger number of supply paths to market. In northern Europe, the growing interest in natural gas has been taken up in the inter-state energy cooperation. This is an important element in the extensive activities in the field of energy which is focused on expanded Baltic Sea cooperation. In , parliament has adopted guidelines in 1988 for natural gas utilization. According to these guidelines, gas shall be purchased on strictly commercial principles. Gas must have the inherent potential to compete on the Swedish energy market. Commercial negotiations shall be pursued at corporate level. The social assessment of a natural gas project shall also be made in conjunction with the appraisal of applications for permission in accordance with the Pipeline . Finally, supply must take place in conformance with the energy policy guidelines. Social objectives must thus be met as regards reliability of supply, contingency storage and the environment. Several studies concerning the of natural gas in have been made in recent years. The Nordic Gas study examines the opportunities available for a Nordic natural gas network which receives the gas from the reserves in and . A study carried out by examines the opportunities available for laying a natural gas pipeline from to Western Europe. If established, natural gas would be transported from , possibly via and , to Western Europe. A study is also planned into an additional transport path for natural gas between , and , known as The Baltic Gas Interconnector. The purpose of the study is to investigate the opportunities available for using new supply paths to link together the existing gas pipelines in southern with the system, with the aim of, among other things, increasing competition and reliability of supply. Chapter 6 describes the laws that regulate the laying and operation of gas pipelines. In addition, a brief description is given of the opportunities available for gaining access to the land necessary for a gas pipeline. The central legislation includes the (1978:160) on certain pipelines (the Pipeline ), which principally deals with concession (permission) matters. According to the law, a concession is needed for laying or using a pipeline for the transport of natural gas (although no permit is needed for distribution pipelines, for example). The application for a concession is examined by the Government, although the application is submitted to the . A concession may be granted only if it is appropriate from the public viewpoint for the pipeline to be run and used, and if the applicant is considered to be suitable for running the operations covered by the concession. The concession must not be in conflict with the detailed development plan or regional regulations. When assessing an application for a concession, the environmental code shall be applied. The assessment of an application for a concession involves the pipeline company being subjected to an overall assessment in all respects in which social interests apply. The Pipeline (just like other legislation in the area) has no detailed provisions for the trading in and transport of natural gas. It only states that the concessionaire is responsible, against payment of a fee, for allowing others access for transport through the pipeline, if this can be done without significant detriment to the concessionaire. A number of other laws shall be taken into account. This includes the Planning and , which includes provision for the plan preparation for land and water, and for construction. The Environmental Code, which came into force on 1 January 1999, governs the fundamental environmental conditions.