EVIKEN, the Association of Industrial Energy Consumers, has raised concerns claiming a lack of transparency in gas auctions held by DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation.

The fears were raised in a letter forwarded to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition.

DEPA has agreed to take on staging the auctions, offering increased natural gas amounts to the market as a means of generating competition, after committing to demands made following research conducted by an independent gas market authority.

In its letter, EVIKEN advised that a list of prospective auction participants should be published prior to auctions and, as a follow-up, results detailing orders and quantities made by participants must also be made available as a means of protecting transparency standards.

The association noted that the procedures observed in the just-introduced NOME auctions in the electricity market should be used as a model reference.

The NOME auctions, introduced in October, are intended to provide third parties with access to PPC’s low-cost lignite and hydropower sources as a measure to help break the utility’s market dominance.