1.1 GMoM in Porto, Portugal: 20-21 March 2019
        

EASEE-gas 2019 General Meeting of Members (GMoM) will take place on Thursday 21 March 2019 in Porto, Portugal. 


As usual, the event will start the day before, on Wednesday 20 March, with a social event mid-afternoon. We will organise a boat tour departing from the hotel's deck and going along the river Gaia. The tour will finish at one of the famous Port wine cellars where a Port wine tasting will take place. 



Venue: Pestana Palácio do Freixo Hotel  in Porto, Portugal (Estrada Nacional 108, 4300-316 Campanhã, Porto, Portugal)
Dates: 20-21 March 2019

Working Group meetings will be organised during the same week. The Board is now looking at topics and speakers for the panel discussion. Should you have any ideas, please share it with the office in Brussels. 

 Savethedate
 
The 2018 security certificate migration process was successfully completed! 85 security certificates were renewed: AS2 certificates on 9 October and AS4 on 17 October.
The project was carried out by PSvdL together with the Certification Authority Quovadis under the supervision of the Technology Standards Working Group.
The EASEE-gas Board would like to thank all those involved in the process for their professionalism and dedication. 
 
Appointments
1.3 New service for members coming soon: EASEE-connect

As reported in the last edition of the EASEE-gas Newsletter, the Technology Standards Working Group (TSWG) is developing a new service for the association: EASEE-connect.
EASEE-connect will be a centralised digital platform hosting counterparty portfolio management of AS2/AS4 messaging configuration parameters. The platform will replace the downloadable spreadsheet which is currently available on the EASEE-gas reserved area of the website, hence increasing efficiency and the quality of the information shared. The new platform will contribute greatly to avoiding mistakes in configuring communication settings.
During the past months, the board reviewed the project together with the legal counsel to check all implications. The TSWG launched a call for proposals and reviewed the offers received. The Dutch company Quintor was appointed. They will be working on the platform the next weeks. Once the platform is operational, EASEE-gas will organise a webinar to inform members about the functionalities and on how to use EASEE-connect.
Initially, EASEE-connect will only be available to the members of the association. The board will assess in 2019 how to make it available to non-members as a paid service. 

PetervanWesembeeck
1.4 Joint workshop EASEE-gas ENTSOG on data communication harmonisation for gas transmission 

Over 50 attendees, including people involved in the daily operations of gas transmission systems, ICT architects and gas transmission capacity platform operators, gathered in Brussels on 4 October to participate at the Joint Workshop of EASEE-gas and ENTSOG on Data Communication Harmonisation for Gas Transmission.
ENTSOG presented the legal background of the harmonised data exchange and the results of the consultation on data exchange solutions at virtual trading points and storage facilities that took place from 17 May to 18 June 2018. Common Data Exchange Solutions were presented, including updates made this year to the AS4 usage profile documentation. The Integrated Data Exchange Usage Profile was also introduced. As next steps, ENSTOG announced that another public consultation will soon take place.
CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) presented the latest updates on the AS4 conformance testing platform and the possibility for new implementers to test their AS4 product and also apply for funds regarding these projects.
EASEE-gas presented the changes made during the year on the Edig@s message format that will lead to the creation of a new version of the message format: Edig@s 6. The work done to harmonize the message use, the core components and the code lists was detailed. The process changes induced by market changes were also presented as well as the alignment of the terminology with the Harmonised Gas Role Model. The latest version of the latter was also presented as well as an update of the EASEE-Connect project.
The agenda and the presentations of this event are available on our website: https://easee-gas.eu/edig-s  

listDefinitions5
1.5 EASEE-gas publishes list of definitions used in the gas sector   

The EASEE-gas Business Process Working Group finalised the list of the various definitions used by EASEE-gas and by ENTSOG. 


RoleModel6
1.6  Draft Harmonised Gas Role Model CBP under consultation 

The Gas Role Model Task Force worked the past year on turning the document into a CBP. The Harmonised Gas Role Model document was divided into 2 parts:
* the definitions and the business process became the CBP
* the rest of the document was integrated in the explanatory notes

The first draft was approved by the Executive Committee in October and circulated to the full membership of EASEE-gas for comments. All comments will then be reviewed by the Gas Role Model Task Force and if need be they will work on a new draft. This draft will then be submitted to the Executive Committee again for final approval. 

Depending on the amount of comments received during this consultation process, the CBP should be finalised still this year or early 2019. 

AdvisoryPanel7
1.7 Advisory Panel meeting and Madrid Forum  

The EASEE-gas Advisory Panel meeting took place on 16 October in Madrid. The meeting was attended by seven associations: EFET, IOGP, Marcogaz, Eurogas, IFIEC, Euroelectric, EUTurbines. The Austrian regulator E-Control and the UK government (BEIS) were also present together with the chair and secretary of the CEN TC 234. 
Participants discussed a number of topics, from cyber security, hydrogen, green and blue gas and the green certificates. 

The 31st edition of the Madrid Forum took place from 16-17 October and was attended by Rudy Van Beurden and Peter Meeuwis. The two-days meeting can be summarised in five points:
    1. Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate gave an update on the Groningen situation explaining the plans for production, conversion and climate policy.
   2.The role of gas will vary from a decreasing role due to strong electrification, to a stable or increasing role thanks to sustainable (biogas, synthetic methane) and non-carbon (hydrogen or CCS) produced gases.
    3. Impact of the "new" gases:
      a. Who does what: the same as the discussion we had in the Netherlands regarding the law VET (Acceleration of Energy Transition)
      b. What is possible: gas qualities must take into account the different requirements of different users (see CEN/Marcogaz presentation for more info)
       c. Policy: GOs (Guarantees of Origin) must be expanded: target for green gas
        d. Less risk on stranded assets in the transmission grid
    4.The gas demand influences the transport tariffs. Keep rates low because of market integration
    5. Implementation of the Network Codes is going well, but it could be better in Eastern Europe (see the presentation of the Energy Community). Attention was paid to VIPs (Virtual Interconnection Points). The Dutch issues on VIPs are going to be used as an example in the next Madrid Forum.

The agenda and other documents of the Madrid Forum (interventions, discussions papers, etc) are available here 

Constraints
1.8 Task Force on Hydrogen, Biogas & Energy Transition merged with the Gas Quality Harmonisation Working Group 

This new Task Force was created earlier this year under the chairmanship of Dirk Jan Meuzelaar and Michel Van den Brande. The Task Force organised three meetings, which were very well attended. Taking into account that there is a considerable overlap with the topics followed by the Gas Quality Harmonisation Working Group, the Task Force made a proposal to merge with the Gas Quality Harmonisation Working Group. This proposal was accepted and will be implemented shortly.

EASEE-gas Office
188a Avenue de Tervueren, 4th Floor
Postbox 4,  1150 Brussels,  Belgium
Tel: +32 2 761 16 33
easee-gas@kellencompany.com
https://easee-gas.eu/
      

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