A full-day workshop under the title “Slovenian Gas Market in the Region” was held on Wednesday 4th April 2018 by our company Plinovodi d.o.o

The workshop was opened by the General Manager of Plinovodi d.o.o. Marjan Eberlinc, who emphasized the importance of natural gas and the initiatives for its use, as well as the requirements set by the natural gas market for gas infrastructure.

The first part of the workshop continued with presentation of legislative novelties and the development of services aimed at more user and environmentally friendly business. With first presentation, Jošt Štrukelj covered the novelties of European and national legislation. Following presentation was held by Jan Šinigoj on the topic of the project within the NUS “Network User Services” portal, which enables digitalization of the capacity contracts in the Republic of Slovenia. More information on the natural gas market was given by Marko Širovnik, who emphasized some of the key features of the Slovenian natural gas transmission system and provided key information about the virtual point. At the very end of the first part of the workshop, Oton Gortnar gave a detailed presentation of the current status on the project application for forecasting non-daily metered consumption.

The possibilities of gas in the energy sector were, in the second part of the workshop, presented also by guest speakers. The main theme of the presentation of Stane Merše from the Jožef Stefan Institute was focused on the current and future role of natural gas in Slovenia. Marko Senčar from the Energy Agency pointed to an increasingly important topic of security of supply of natural gas. Mojca Španring also from the Energy Agency enriched us with specific information of the natural gas market in 2017. Franc Cimerman and Nika Janša from Plinovodi d.o.o presented Ten-Year Development Plan for the Transmission Gas Network for the period 2019-2028, which was also the last topic in the second part.

In the third, internationally coloured part of the workshop, State Secretary Klemen Potisek dedicated special importance to natural gas in the Energy Concept of Slovenia. Franc Žlahtič from Plinovodi d.o.o. then made an introduction to the currently popular topic, the bidirectional gas route Italy – Slovenia – Hungary. The regional importance of this project was also highlighted and supported by Hungarian Ambassadress Edit Szilágyiné Bátorfi. On the basis of the carried out analyses, Pétr Kotek from the REKK Institute presented the Quo vadis analysis and his view on the project. All three national transmission system operators presented the starting points and views of the bidirectional gas route Italy – Slovenia – Hungary. For Plinovodi d.o.o.from Slovenia the presentation was made by Franc Žlahtič, Oton Gortnar and Jan Šinigoj, for Snam Rete Gas S.p.A. from Italy the presentation was made by Gianluca Zonta, Claudio Montanari and Alessandro Mora and for FGSZ Ltd from Hungary the presentation was made by Gábor Szokodi, Ákos Grosz, Sándor Bogoly. Ákos Kriston, representative of the Hungarian warehouse operator Magyar Földgáztároló, gave his contribution on the topic of Hungarian gas storage.