The filling level of the natural gas storage facilities in Germany has cracked the 100 percent mark. This emerged on Tuesday from data from the European gas storage association GIE. According to the network agency, the 100 percent refers to the working gas volume reported by the plant operators, which indicates the secured capacity of the storage facility. “However, this does not always correspond to the physical possibilities, so that some storage facilities can store more gas,” said the authority in Bonn on Tuesday. Therefore, even with a filling level of 100 percent, further storage can continue.
After the first dock for ship landings of liquefied natural gas (LNG) was completed in Wilhelmshaven on Tuesday, Network Agency President Klaus Müller spoke of a “double success for security of supply”. The LNG feeder is ready and the gas storage facilities are “crammed full,” Müller wrote on Twitter. “This is the result of good political decisions. We need this impetus now for the expansion of renewable energies
Fuller than full
According to the latest information from the GIE transparency platform Agsi, 245.44 terawatt hours of natural gas were registered in the storage facilities on Monday morning. This was slightly above the 100 percent mark, which was reached at 245.39 terawatt hours. For comparison: In January and February 2022, according to the Federal Network Agency, a total of almost 227 terawatt hours of natural gas were consumed in Germany. At the EU level, too, the reservoirs were well filled on Monday morning: the AGSI side recorded a filling level of 95.6 percent. The filling of the storage facilities was made very difficult this year by the Russian gas supply stop.
The storage facilities compensate for fluctuations in gas consumption and thus form a buffer system for the market. While gas is being stored, gas continues to flow to Germany via pipelines from countries such as Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. The storage tanks are usually well filled at the beginning of the heating period. The filling levels then decrease until spring. According to the Energy Industry Act, they should still be 40 percent full on February 1st.
The largest German storage facility in Rehden, Lower Saxony, which alone accounts for around 18 percent of the secured storage capacity, was 94.75 percent full on Monday morning. According to the gas storage association Ines, the fact that more than 100 percent was still achieved across Germany is due to the fact that several other storage facilities are already more than 100 percent full.
“It is a storage level that has never been reached in Germany since records began,” said Ines Managing Director Sebastian Bleschke of the German Press Agency. The storage options are currently being pushed to their technical limits while complying with all safety regulations.
