3. This Regulation shall not apply to reconciliation that would be necessary between the allocations and actual consumption subsequently derived from final customer meter readings when obtained.

4. This Regulation shall not apply in emergency situations where the transmission system operator shall implement specific measures defined under the applicable national rules and on the basis of Regulation (EU) No 994/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 concerning measures to safeguard security of gas supply(5), as appropriate.

5. The respective rights and obligations originating from this Regulation with regard to network users shall only apply to those network users which have concluded a legally binding agreement, being a transport contract or another contract, which enables them to submit trade notifications in accordance with Article 5.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 715/2009, Article 3 Commission Regulation (EU) No 984/2013 establishing a Network Code on Capacity Allocation Mechanisms in Gas Transmission Systems and supplementing Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council(6) as well as Article 2 of Directive 2009/73/EC shall apply. In addition, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) ‘balancing zone’ means an entry-exit system to which a specific balancing regime is applicable and which may include distribution systems or part of them;

(2) ‘balancing action’ means an action undertaken by the transmission system operator to change the gas flows onto or off the transmission network, excluding those actions related to gas unaccounted for as off-taken from the system and gas used by the transmission system operator for the operation of the system;

(3) ‘neutrality charge for balancing’ means a charge amounting to the difference between the amounts received or receivable and the amounts paid or payable by the transmission system operator due to performance of its balancing activities which is payable to or recoverable from the relevant network users;

(4) ‘trading platform’ means an electronic platform provided and operated by a trading platform operator by means of which trading participants may post and accept, including the right to revise and withdraw, bids and offers for gas required to meet short term fluctuations in gas demand or supply, in accordance with the terms and conditions applicable on the trading platform and at which the transmission system operator trades for the purpose of undertaking balancing actions;

(5) ‘trading participant’ means a network user or a transmission system operator holding a contract with the trading platform operator and satisfying the conditions necessary to transact on the trading platform.

(6) ‘balancing platform’ means a trading platform where a transmission system operator is a trading participant to all trades;

(7) ‘balancing service’ means a service provided to a transmission system operator via a contract for gas required to meet short term fluctuations in gas demand or supply, which is not a short term standardised product;

(8) ‘confirmed quantity’ means the quantity of gas confirmed by a transmission system operator to be scheduled or re-scheduled to flow on gas day D;

(9) ‘daily imbalance charge’ means the amount of money a network user pays or receives in respect of a daily imbalance quantity;

(10) ‘daily metered’ means that the gas quantity is measured and collected once per gas day;

(11) ‘intraday metered’ means that the gas quantity is measured and collected a minimum of two times within the gas day;

(12) ‘non daily metered’ means that the gas quantity is measured and collected less frequently than once per gas day;

(13) ‘balancing portfolio’ means a grouping of a network user’s inputs and off-takes;