The concept of the “anchor user” is taken from the gas pipeline industry. Such as a gas consumer that consumes sufficient quantities of gas to represent a required entry threshold to justify the high infrastructure investment required by a new gas supplier to enter the market place. In Israel, IEC has been the only anchor consumer for natural gas producers. The FERC has recently adopted the concept to the electricity sector to promote investment in new electricity transmission lines in the US, by allowing developers to allocate half the line’s capacity to representatives of “anchor users” for 25 years, before running any open season or auction that opens up capacity to others. The concept is intended to provide early commitments that facilitate financing of the investment. > >