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1. Where a transmission system operator, a distribution system operator or a hydrogen network operator provides regulated services for natural gas, hydrogen or electricity, it shall comply with the requirement for unbundling of accounts as laid down in Article 75 of Directive (EU) 2024/1788 and Article 56 of Directive (EU) 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council and it shall have a separate regulatory asset base for natural gas, hydrogen or electricity assets. That separate regulatory asset base shall ensure that:

(a) service revenue obtained from the provision of specific regulated services can be used only to recover the capital and operational expenditure related to the assets included in the regulatory asset base on which the regulated services were provided;

(b) when assets are transferred to a different regulatory asset base, their value is established, subject to an audit and approval by the regulatory authority and is such that cross-subsidies do not occur.

2. A Member State shall not allow financial transfers between regulated services that are separate within the meaning of paragraph 1.

3. Member States may allow hydrogen network operators to spread the recovery through network access tariffs of hydrogen network costs over time in order to ensure that future users duly contribute to initial hydrogen network development costs. Such an inter-temporal cost allocation and its underlying methodology shall be subject to approval by the regulatory authority. Member States may put in place measures, such as a State guarantee, to cover the financial risk of hydrogen network operators associated with the initial cost recovery gap arising from the application of inter-temporal cost allocation provided that such measures comply with Article 107 TFEU.

4. By way of derogation from paragraph 2, a Member State may allow financial transfers between regulated services that are separate within the meaning of paragraph 1, provided that the regulatory authority has established that the financing of networks through network access tariffs paid by its network users only is not viable. The regulatory authority shall consider in its assessment, inter alia, the value of projected financial transfers, the resulting cross-subsidisation between users of the respective networks and the cost-efficiency of those financial transfers. The following conditions shall apply to a financial transfer within the meaning of this paragraph:

(a) all revenue needed for the financial transfer is collected as a dedicated charge;

(b) the dedicated charge is collected only from exit points to final customers located within the same Member States as the beneficiary of the financial transfer;

(c) the dedicated charge and financial transfer or the methodologies underlying their calculation are approved prior to their entry into force by the regulatory authority;

(d) the approved dedicated charge and financial transfer and the methodologies, where methodologies are approved, are published no later than thirty days before their date of implementation;

(e) the Commission and ACER have been notified by the Member State that it has allowed financial transfers.

5. The regulatory authority may approve a financial transfer and dedicated charge referred to in paragraph 4, provided that:

(a) network access tariffs are charged to users of the regulatory asset base that benefits from a financial transfer;

(b) the sum of financial transfers and service revenue collected through network access tariffs is not larger than the allowed or target revenue;

(c) a financial transfer is approved for a limited period in time, and that period is no longer than one third of the remaining depreciation period of the infrastructure concerned.

6. By 5 August 2025, ACER shall issue recommendations to transmission system operators, distribution system operators, hydrogen network operators and regulatory authorities on the methodologies for setting the inter-temporal cost allocation. ACER shall update the recommendations referred to in the first subparagraph at least every two years. ACER may issue recommendations to transmission system operators, distribution system operators, hydrogen network operators and regulatory authorities on the methodologies for:

(a) the determination of the value of the assets that are transferred to another regulatory asset base and the destination of any profits and losses that may occur as a result;

(b) the calculation of the size and maximum duration of the financial transfer and dedicated charge;

(c) the criteria to allocate contributions to the dedicated charge among final customers connected to the regulatory asset base.