Governance arrangements overseen by Gas Industry Company

Gas Industry Co administers a range of governance arrangements for the downstream gas industry sector.

Regulatory arrangements made under the Gas Act include:

• Gas (Switching Arrangements) Rules 2008 (Switching Rules), which provide for a central registry of installation Control Point (ICP) data, and facilitate customer switching among retailers.

• Gas (Downstream Reconciliation) Rules 2008 (Reconciliation Rules), which prescribe the process for attributing volumes of gas consumed to the responsible retailers.

• Gas Governance (Critical Contingency Management) Regulations 2008 (CCM Regulations), which set out how industry participants plan for, and respond to, a serious incident affecting gas supply via the gas transmission pipelines.

• Gas Governance (Compliance) Regulations 2008 (Compliance Regulations), under which alleged breaches of the rules and regulations set out above are determined and settled efficiently.  Gas Industry Co performs the role of Market Administrator under the Compliance Regulations.

• Gas (Levy of Industry Participants) Regulations 2018, authorises the levy to be charged on industry participants.

Industry arrangements include:

• Retail Gas Contracts Oversight Scheme (Retail Scheme), which sets out a series of benchmarks for contracts between retailers and small consumers.

• Gas Distribution Contracts Oversight Scheme (Distribution Scheme) which sets out principles for contracts between distributors and retailers.

• Framework for Gas Retailer Insolvency Arrangements, which sets out the process Gas Industry Co will follow in the event of a retailer insolvency. 

• Guidelines on Interconnection with Transmission Pipelines (Interconnection Guidelines), detailing expectations for transmission system owners’ policies and procedures for third party connections to their pipelines).

The ongoing effectiveness of the governance arrangements is monitored and reviewed, including through a set of industry performance measures, which is  found here.