Gas Storage Crisis: Supply Fears

In the current temperatures, the idea of ​​the coming winter seems to be a long way off. But in the energy industry, the lack of utilization of many gas stores is currently causing excitement. The largest German gas memory in Rehden, Lower Saxony is currently only 2.3 percent – the filling level was last in early summer 2022. “When it was empty, the gas crisis was followed,” wrote Volker Quaschning, professor of regenerative energy systems at HTW Berlin, on the LinkedIn platform this week. “We are still a long way off. But in combination with the massive dependence of our natural gas supply on a few Norwegian pipelines, this is a reason to worry.”

The almost 44 terawatt hours of volume bidding pore memory is not an isolated case. The fourth largest German gas -storey Breitbrunn in Bavaria, marketed by Uniper, is currently still empty for around two thirds. When the company tried to auction free capacities in June, no buyer was found. Against the background of the difficult market situation, Uniper with NAFTA Speicher GmbH, which holds the right -wing rights of use at the deposit, could not agree to an extension of their contract, which expires at the end of the 2026/27 storage year. Uniper then reported the Federal Network Agency to shut down the memory, says a spokeswoman.

Despite the problems in Rehden and Breitbrunn, Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche exposed the alarm level in the emergency plan, which its predecessor Robert Habeck (Greens) had launched in June 2022 after the Russian attack war on Ukraine. The prices would have stabilized, the memory contributes to security of supply, says the CDU politician. How does that fit together?

The Federal Network Agency speaks of individual cases with a view to the memory in Rehden or Breitbrunn; The “overall show” depends on the assessment of the security of supply. Overall, the memory in Germany is currently too 50 percent filled; The value is at the bottom of the previous crises. The authority speaks of a “stable supply” that has “changed” in recent years, for example through its own liquid gas minals and changed load flows. Due to “sufficient import and storage options”, the security of supply is guaranteed.

In the event of a supply interruption of individual lines, lack of quantities up to the arrival of liquefied gas deliveries could primarily be compensated for by cavern memory in the north and pore memory in the south, says the network agency spokesman. Rehden is less important in such a scenario, because due to its geological properties, the stored gas amounts would only be available for time. “Any bottlenecks could therefore be bridged much better through the gas trading.” Nevertheless, the low filling levels of individual memory are proof that the gas market does not work as it should. Usually gas is cheaper for delivery in summer than for delivery in winter-in technical language one speaks of a positive summer winter spread-which offers market participants an incentive to save.

However, this principle no longer applies. “Since last autumn and until a few weeks ago, the storage was economically unattractive because summer prices were over the winter prices,” says a spokeswoman for Uniper. This led to the fact that “considerable capacities” for the ongoing storage year are still unborn. In the meantime, the spreads have recovered somewhat, but are still “very narrow”. This means that storage customers can hardly cover their costs of filling for the already booked storage capacities or are unable to buy new gas.

“The market currently does not provide sufficient incentives to store gas storage,” says Stefan Dohler, CEO of the Oldenburg Energy Group EWE, who also operates a gas storage. “If storage users have no economically sustainable feed -in incentives and the state takes responsibility at the same time, the risk is real that memory will not be sufficiently filled before the coming winter.” The low and long even negative summer-winter spreads attribute many observers to the levels of filling that has existed since the energy crisis that storage operators have to reach by the autumn of each year. Because they only affect the dealers and suppliers if these storage capacities had booked, the retailers and providers would have preferred to book memory in view of the market tanomal to be observed in the spring, explains a spokesman for the Federal Network Agency.

If it looks as if the levels of filling are not reached, the Düsseldorf -based company Trading Hub Europe (The), as the so -called market area manager, has to fill the gap on behalf of the state – regardless of the price. The costs for this are plummed up to consumers via the gas storage levy; This year it is 0.299 cents per kilowatt hour. From next year it will be financed from the climate and transformation fund (KTF). Minister of Economics Reiche said on Tuesday that she does not consider state filling of the memory by The “given the” overall safe supply situation “.

Nevertheless, it could be expensive for consumers. “Inadequate storage capacity at the beginning of winter would increase the risk of price tips in winter, since it reduces the country’s buffer capacity to cope with particularly cold weather conditions or unplanned interruptions of care,” says Natasha Fielding from the Raw material agency ARGUS Media.

The EU recognized the market -defending effect of the specifications for the storage and at least agreed to relax at the end of June. In addition, Uniper would have preferred to be recognized as a system -related infrastructure and regulatory, “so that investments are made, not least in the face of upcoming reinvestations, renovation measures and the limited future perspective for natural gas”. The company also wants the state to support the development of hydrogen stores; The gas industry had proposed differential contracts with a later levy financing. According to the spokeswoman, this would help to convert the gass stores to hydrogen perspective.

Local gas funding will soon also contribute to the security of supply. The Federal Government approved a gas funding agreement with the Netherlands on Wednesday. This takes a hurdle on the way to the gas production in front of the island of Borkum. However, the fields planned there correspond to only about one percent of German gas consumption. Critics warned of the risk of a “fossil lock-in” because the economic load capacity of such projects depends heavily on synergy effects and infrastructure expansion.