energy
Ministry wants to reduce requirements for gas storage fillings
In the 2022 energy crisis, specifications were introduced so that gas stores are well filled. The situation has changed. Now the Ministry of Economic Affairs is reacting.
The requirements for filling stalls in German gas stores are to be lowered. In a draft for a regulation, the Federal Ministry of Economics mentions the reason that the gas supply situation had significantly stabilized through numerous measures. Reference is made to the possibilities for landing liquid gas in terminals to the North and Baltic Sea and the increase in pipeline imports from Norway.
It also says that price developments endangered the market filling of the gas stores. We are talking about a “negative summer winter price difference”. This means that gas prices are higher in summer than in winter, so it is not worthwhile for market players to store the gas for winter in summer – although the need is significantly higher in winter.
The gas stores compensate for fluctuations in gas consumption and form a buffer system for the gas market. In winter, the filling levels usually decrease again after the heating period ends. In parallel to storage use, natural gas flows permanently via pipelines and LNG terminals on the German coasts to Germany.
In the 2022 energy crisis, due to the Russian attack on Ukraine and the dependence on Russian gas and empty memory, specifications for the filling levels of German gas storage were introduced to secure the gas supply. The law and the associated regulation stipulate that the memory in Germany on October 1 should be 80 percent and 90 percent filled on November 1st.
In concrete terms, according to the draft, the ministry wants to reduce the requirements for gas storage facilities on a total filling goal of 70 percent on November 1st. The market for filling the memory is intended to be more obliged and avoid high costs for any state replacement measures. At the EU level, negotiations on the requirements for filling gas stores are currently underway.
Reactions of associations
The Stadtwerkeverband VKU welcomed the reduction of the “rigid levels of filling” in a statement. Costs of a regulatory intervention would be distributed to the end customers via the gas storage levy, which leads to a factual increasing of natural gas for households and industry.
The Initiative Energies Saving, an association of operators of German gas and hydrogen stores, criticized, on the other hand, criticized the lowering of the levels of filling as of November 1st could mean lower filling of the gas storage in front of the upcoming winters.
dpa
Source: Stern
