GD17 Licence Modifications

On the 28th October 2016, the Utility Regulator published its decision paper on licence modifications to the conveyance licences for the three gas distribution network operators (GDNs) in Northern Ireland (NI):

  • firmus energy (Distribution) Limited (FE)
  • Phoenix Natural Gas Limited (PNGL)
  • SGN Natural Gas Limited (SGN)

The licence modifications in this decision paper are required to give effect to a number of regulatory decisions in different areas, including:

In addition, we have included a small number of further licence modifications to address known licence drafting issues.

The purpose of the modifications is to implement the above decisions and to address known licence errors as well as some key inconsistencies between the licences held by the GDNs.

We have already consulted on licence modifications and our consultation period concluded on the 14th October 2016.

We received three responses to our consultation and these may be accessed at:

We have considered representations made in response to our consultation and include our respective decisions within the decision paper.   This decision paper on licence modifications is complemented by annexes 1 to 3 showing the tracked changes to the conveyance licences for three GDNs as follows:

Our decision paper includes annexes 4 to 6 setting out the decision notices for the licence modifications for the three GDNs:

This series of licence modifications is scheduled to become effective from the 1st January 2017