The natural gas storage facilities in Germany reached the 100 percent mark this morning. The filling level was 100.03 percent, according to preliminary data published on the Internet by the European gas storage association GIE in the evening.
According to previous information from the federal government, the amount of natural gas stored in the storage facilities at 100 percent level corresponds to the consumption of two to three average cold winter months.
The storage association GIE stated the amount of natural gas stored at 254.92 terawatt hours. For comparison: According to the Federal Network Agency, a total of 196 terawatt hours of natural gas were consumed in Germany in January and February 2023. For further classification: According to the Federal Network Agency, a total of 847 terawatt hours of natural gas were consumed in Germany in the entire year of 2022. A terawatt hour is a billion kilowatt hours.
Authority President Müller: “Good news”
The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, was pleased: “It’s good news that the storage facilities are now 100 percent full. We are much better prepared for the winter than we were last year,” Müller told Deutsche Press agency dpa. But it is too early to give a complete all-clear. “We ask people to think carefully about how much consumption can be saved.” If you use gas sparingly, you can save a lot of money next winter. “An average household saved around 440 euros last year through careful gas consumption.”
Storage operators reject further obligations
“With the new full filling, the operators and users of the gas storage facilities have fully fulfilled their responsibility for a secure gas supply in the winter,” said the managing director of the storage association Initiative Energiespeicher (Ines), Sebastian Heinermann, to the dpa. He hopes that this will create trust in politicians so that further interventions in storage usage can be avoided. In this context, Heinermann referred to current proposals from the federal government to change the gas storage law. These would provide for further obligations for storage operators and users. For the winter, the renewed full filling means that under the current conditions, only extremely cold temperatures could lead to a gas shortage.
Germany receives natural gas from numerous countries
According to the network agency, Germany imported a total of 74 terawatt hours of natural gas in October. Most recently, natural gas came through pipelines primarily from Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. Smaller quantities flowed into the German transmission network from France, Austria, Switzerland and via the new liquefied natural gas terminals on the German coasts. Natural gas from Russia last came to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline on August 30, 2022.
Gas storage facilities were filled faster in 2023
The gas storage facilities were filled faster this year than last year. In 2022, 100 percent were registered on the morning of November 14th. A regulation introduced in 2022 during the gas crisis stipulates, among other things, that the storage facilities must be at least 95 percent full on November 1st. They still have to be 40 percent full on February 1st. The 95 percent had already been reached on September 26th.
The gas storage facilities compensate for fluctuations in gas consumption and thus form a buffer system for the market. The levels usually decrease in winter and increase again after the end of the heating season.
The largest German storage facility in Rehden, Lower Saxony, recorded a filling level of 99.3 percent on Sunday morning. The storage facilities are also almost full across the EU. According to GIE, the fill level was almost 99.6 percent.
If the gas cools down, more can be stored in the storage tank
The storage association Ines explains why the fill level can be more than 100 percent: The storage operators state the capacity of gas storage facilities under normal conditions as 100 percent. “If gas is stored under optimal conditions, this can lead to an increase in storage options,” explained Heinermann. The volume of natural gas decreases as its temperature decreases. “So if the stored gas has time to cool down after being compressed for storage, then more gas can ultimately be stored in a storage facility.”
