It is the second winter in a row in which Germany has to ask itself whether there is enough energy for households and industry. A look at the filling levels of the natural gas storage facilities shows that they have been 100 percent full since last Sunday. The filling level was even at 100.03 percent, according to preliminary data from the European gas storage association GIE on Sunday evening. 100 percent filling level means an amount of natural gas that, according to previous information from the federal government, 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. 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.
Customers should continue to save in the future
The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, said: “It is good news that the storage facilities are now 100 percent full. We are much better prepared for the winter than we were last year,” said Müller. 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.”
The managing director of the storage association Initiative Energiespeicher (Ines), Sebastian Heinermann, said: “With the renewed full filling, the operators and users of the gas storage facilities have fully fulfilled their responsibility for a secure gas supply in winter.” 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.
How full the storage facilities must be has been regulated since 2022. A regulation stipulates 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 was already achieved on September 26th.
Be fuller than 100 percent?
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.
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.”