The Gas Market Operator for Northern Ireland (“GMO NI”) operates the natural gas transmission market in NI on behalf of the four gas transmission operator (“TSOs”), GNI(UK), Premier Transmission Limited (“PTL”), Belfast Gas Transmission Limited (“BGTL”) and West Transmission Limited (“WTL”).
Established in October 2017 through a licence obligation placed on the TSOs, GMO NI is a contractual arrangement between the parties, and consists of a small team based in Belfast. The main benefits and reasons for implementation of GMO NI was to provide a single point of contact for all commercial activities relating to the NI gas transmission network, to have a single network code and associated commercial IT system, and to reduce the billing complexity for the network users. Since its inception the GMO NI has driven efficiencies for the NI consumer by avoiding duplication, and has simplified the interactions between the TSOs and their network users