News item | 27-05-2022 | 12:09
To ensure that sufficient gas will be available next winter, energy companies can apply for support in two rounds on 30 May and 7 June for filling the Bergermeer gas storage facility. In addition to the storage costs, this subsidy scheme compensates for the difference between the current gas prices and the possibly lower gas prices next winter. A maximum of EUR 406 million has been budgeted for the scheme.
Bergermeer gas storage near Alkmaar is the largest freely accessible gas storage facility in Western Europe. Filling this is an important part of preparing for the coming winter. The goal is to fill Bergermeer to at least 68%. Because the Netherlands fills other gas storage facilities to 100%, a filling requirement of 68% remains to achieve the EU target of 80% on average. Preparations for filling the other gas storage facilities have already started.
Warranty scheme
Filling the gas storage facilities is currently not attractive to market parties because the high prices and the associated risks of losses are too great for many market parties. In addition to a guarantee for the hedging of price risks, the scheme consists of a compensation for operational costs (the so-called discount). In the two rounds (tenders), companies submit an amount for the auction themselves and compete with each other in the assessment. The applications are granted in the order of the requested exit. The less discount and therefore subsidy a company asks for a certain filling volume, the greater the chance that the application will be granted.
Two rounds
The first tender (30 May) is for the approximately 35 companies that have signed a service agreement with gas storage Bergermeer. These parties can lay claim to the remaining uncontracted available capacity in the Bergermeer gas storage (approximately 4 TWh in total). In addition to a service agreement, twelve gas companies also contracted storage capacity earlier this year for renting space for gas storage. The subsidisable filling capacity for these parties is approximately 16 TWh. These parties can register for the second tender (June 7). The planned start for filling Bergermeer is June 14. A condition for subsidy is that the gas companies have stored the subsidized quantity by 1 November.
Energy Management Netherlands
In addition to the maximum of approximately 20 TWh of gas that companies will fill using this subsidy measure, the state-owned company Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) will also store a minimum of approximately 11 TWh of gas in the Bergermeer gas storage facility. If companies fill less than 20 TWh, EBN will also fill the remaining part in order to a filling level of at least 68%.
A maximum of EUR 623 million has been budgeted for the two measures. The actual costs depend on the difference in the gas price in summer and winter and can therefore be lower than 623 million euros.