Swissgas commercially operates three feed-in points on the transit gas pipeline in Wallbach, Oltingue and Griespass. Swissgas uses these border crossing points to import natural gas from Germany, France and Italy into Switzerland.
Natural gas is imported into Switzerland via twelve feed points from neighbouring countries. The most important feed source is the Transitgas pipeline, through which around 70% of natural gas imports into Switzerland are transported. The Transitgas transport system is technically operated and maintained by Transitgas AG, in which Swissgas holds a 51% stake.
The main pipeline of the Transitgas transport system runs from the German-Swiss border near Wallbach to the Swiss-Italian border near the Gries Pass. A branch pipeline runs from the French-Swiss border near Oltingue to the feed-in point to the main pipeline near Lostorf. The Transitgas transport system thus connects the Swiss natural gas network with the natural gas networks of Germany, France and Italy. Transport pipelines lead from the Transitgas transport system to the four regional balancing zones: Eastern Switzerland, Mittelland, Central Switzerland and Western Switzerland.
The Transitgas pipeline is bidirectional, meaning that gas can be transported both from north to south and in the opposite direction.
Through its stake in Transitgas AG, Swissgas has transport capacity on the Transitgas pipeline both for delivery to the regional balancing zones in Switzerland (western Switzerland, the Swiss Plateau (Mittelland), eastern Switzerland, and central Switzerland) and for transit from the German border to the Italian border and from the Italian border to the French and/or German border.
Swissgas handles the day-to-day operations of its gas procurement transactions and those of the regional companies in the surrounding countries and in Switzerland. To this end, Swissgas operates suitable processing systems and is responsible for the balance sheets in the market regions. It therefore plays a key role in ensuring that the Swiss gas industry’s gas procurement transactions are handled reliably and correctly.
In its function as the operator of the pipeline network, Swissgas is also in charge of handling the gas transport operations for the regional companies, for other importers and third-party suppliers, as well as for transit customers.
To this end, it works closely with the other high-pressure network operators in Switzerland and the surrounding countries including Germany, France and Italy.
Swissgas offers trasport capacities from Wallbach to Griespass on the PRISMA auction platform (https://platform.prisma-capacity.eu/#/start) or on individual contracts/OTC.
To become an approved shipper a Frame Transport Agreement needs to be signed between the shipper and Swissgas. You will find an example of a Frame Transport Agreement as well as further information in our Downloads section.
Swissgas is a member of EASEE-gas, the European Association for the Harmonisation and Simplification of Energy Exchange.
Swissgas is a member of GIE (Gas Infrastructure Europe) and has observer status in ENTSO-G (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas). Swissgas represents the interests of the Swiss gas industry in both bodies.
Swissgas offers registered shippers two options for handling the nomination process for gas transport on the Transitgas system:
-Electronic nomination exchange by the Edig@s XML standard with AS4
-Manual nomination of the transport on the Swissgas web portal
Edig@s XML standard: For the electronic exchange of nominations, Swissgas relies on the established European industry standard Edig@s in version 5.1 (XML). Further information on the standard can be found on the Edigas Group website at www.edigas.org.
The currently valid message specifications of Swissgas are described in the document Gas Market Codes and Electronic Information Exchange Guidelines.
Message examples can be found on the Downloads page under Edigas Message Examples for Nomination Exchange.
Nomination exchange via AS4: Edig@s XML messages are exchanged via AS4 according to the definition of the ENTSOG AS4 Usage Profile. For setting up and testing the electronic message exchange via AS4, please contact us by email at: edi-team@swissgas.ch.
Details and requirements for the nomination process for transit shippers are described in the document Operational nomination procedures for Transit Shippers.
Details and requirements for the nomination process for domestic shippers are described in the document Operational nomination procedures for Suppliers.
The Transmission Coordination Centre (Koordinationsstelle Durchleitung KSDL) acts as an information and coordination point for anyone interested in network access with offtake in Switzerland. It is an independent organisational unit within Swissgas. Its responsibilities include:
Questions about network access for the supply of end customers authorised to access the network should be directed to Transmission Coordination Centre KSDL (mailto:ksdl@ksdl-erdgas.ch).
Third-party building applications are now submitted directly to the Swiss Federal Pipeline Inspectorate (Eidgenössisches Rohrleitungsinspektorat, ERI).