Allowed revenues: methodologies and parameters

In 2018 the Agency published a Report on the methodologies and parameters used to determine the allowed or target revenue of gas transmission system operators.

The study reviewed the key aspects of TSO revenue setting as well as the associated methodological approaches employed in the EU, and provided an evaluation based on a conceptual framework developed for this purpose.

Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are monopolies and therefore their revenues are set by the national regulatory authorities. A number of different methodologies are used for this purpose. The most common are the price cap, revenue cap and cost plus methodologies. These methodologies include a number of parameters used to determine the depreciation time of the TSO assets and the cost of capital for TSOs.​
 

The report provides recommendations, while the underlying study offers an overview of the main features used to set the TSOs' allowed revenue. The study looks into the practices setting the regulatory asset base and the cost of capital. In addition, the study provides country sheets describing the methodologies applied per Member State.

The report suggest a number of improvements in the design of the allowed revenue methodologies in order to increase transparency, apply benchmarking, establish EU guidelines for setting the cost of capital, and establish data collection processes that can allow comparisons across TSOs on their efficiency.​