In order to ensure more efficient functioning of the internal energy market within the European Union, market participants, as well as individual energy facilities, should acquire a so-called individual identification code – EIC.
Energy Identification Code (EIC) is an individual, up to 16-character alphanumeric code that allows full identification of a market participant. The coding system was originally developed and implemented by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E). However, it is now also used in the internal natural gas market.
The group of entities and facilities in many cases obliged to obtain and use the EIC codes, provided they operate in the internal EU energy market, includes, among others, transmission and distribution system operators, power exchanges, producers, trading companies, consumers, market service providers, local grids, points of connection (entry/exit points) of national and international grids (interconnectors) or balancing areas, electricity storages or regasification terminals.
From the assigned code, it is possible to read, among other things, the coding office that processed the application (and by extension, the country in which the company has its headquarters or in whose territory the facility is located or its operations are conducted), the category to which the entity belongs, and, in the case of older EIC codes, the name of the entity itself.
Codes are assigned upon request by a local issuing office (LIO) or central issuing office (CIO). In Poland, the role of the local issuing office is played by Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne S.A. (identification number 19) and OGP GAZ-SYSTEM S.A. (identification number 53).
Each market participant can receive only one identification code, even if it operates in several areas of the European Union’s internal energy market. The assigned EIC codes are published on the LIO, CIO and ENTSO-E websites.
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