The gas storage facilities in Germany are almost completely full. The filling level is over 99 percent. According to experts, there could only be enough gas for two winter months
Storage capacity is plentiful in other European countries, but how much energy can they realistically provide?
Hannover. The German gas storage facilities are currently over 99 percent full. Similar high occupancy rates are being reported from all over Europe. But do these percentages mean that all countries store the same amount of energy in the form of gas? Not necessarily, because the storage capacities of the countries differ considerably. The German publication RDN provides an overview.
According to the European Council, storage levels in the EU averaged more than 95% in October (as of 17 October 2022) and had already surpassed the minimum EU target of 85% by the end of the year. According to EU data, Germany had a 96 per cent occupancy rate at the time – that equates to 235.8 terawatt hours (TWh).
However, the storage capacities of EU countries differ markedly. While Germany has the capacity to store 245.6 terawatt hours of gas, according to the European Council, Bulgaria can store only 5.8 terawatt hours, and Portugal only has 3.7 terawatt hours. According to the European Council, the combined storage capacities of the five EU member states, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Austria, amount to two thirds of the EU’s storage capacities.
Meanwhile, countries without their own storage capacity have entered into solidarity agreements with other member states. According to the Council of the European Union, they stipulate that the countries concerned “must store 15% of their annual domestic gas consumption in storage facilities located in other member states and thus have access to the gas reserves stored in other member states”. Such countries include, for example, Finland, Greece and Ireland.
Below is an overview of the storage volumes of EU member states (as of October 17, 2022), as well as the gas stocks in terawatt hours (1 kWh tentatively contains the thermal energy that is produced by burning between 0.083 m3 to 0.125 m3 of natural gas (depending on the composition of natural gas and its combustion conditions).
Italy: level of 94.1%, equivalent to 182 TWh
Netherlands: occupancy rate of 93%, equivalent to 129.3 TWh
France: occupancy rate of 98.9%, equivalent to 131.2 TWh
Austria: an occupancy rate of 86,8%, equivalent to 82,9 TWh
Hungary: an occupancy rate of 79.2%, the equivalent of 53.6 TWh
Czech Republic: an occupancy rate of 89.5%, the equivalent of 39.2 TWh
Poland: occupancy rate of 98.4%, the equivalent of 35.8 TWh
Slovakia: an occupancy rate of 89.9%, equivalent to 33.3 TWh
Spain: the occupancy rate of 92.6%, the equivalent of 32.7 TWh
Romania: an occupancy rate of 91.7%, equivalent to 30.1 TWh
Latvia: an occupancy rate of 54.7%, equivalent to 13.2 TWh
Denmark: level of 100%, equivalent to 9.2 TWh
Belgium: level of 100%, equivalent to 8.5 TWh
Bulgaria: 83.3% level, equivalent to 4.8 TWh
Croatia: an occupancy rate of 96.3%, equivalent to 4.6 TWh
Portugal: occupancy rate of 87.6%, the equivalent of 3.2 TWh
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