In the event that Russia turns off the gas supply to Germany, the federal government has been taking precautions for weeks. Now there is good news from Lower Saxony for energy security in Germany.
The nation’s largest gas storage facility in Rehden, Lower Saxony, has been filled with more gas in the past few days than it has been in months. Within a month, the fill level rose from around 0.5 to just over 3 percent, as confirmed by the Federal Network Agency in Bonn.
According to new legal requirements, the goal is a filling level of 80 percent by October 1st, 90 percent by November 1st and 40 percent by February 1st. The authority described these values as “achievable” on Tuesday.
The gas supply in Rehden increased significantly over the Pentecost weekend. The background to this is that Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) issued an ordinance on the basis of which the so-called market area manager Trading Hub Europe could start storing data. According to data from Europe’s gas infrastructure operators (GIE), more than 230 gigawatt hours were added on Saturday and Sunday – a higher daily value was last recorded in early October.
The gas storage facility in Rehden was in the hands of the Russian state-owned company Gazprom until the spring, but its German subsidiary is now under the control of the Federal Network Agency. According to the operator Astora, the storage facility has a capacity of almost four billion cubic meters of gas. That corresponds to around a fifth of the total storage capacity in Germany and the annual consumption of around two million single-family homes.
