Jemgum, 15 May 2013. EWE CEO, Dr. Werner Brinker, and Lower Saxony’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Olaf Lies, together pressed the symbolic start button in the presence of around 400 guests from politics and industry. In doing so, they officially put the natural gas storage facility in Jemgum, East Frisia (District of Leer), into operation on Wednesday 15 May after a seven-year planning and construction phase. EWE GASSPEICHER GmbH, a subsidiary of EWE AG, built the storage facility.
Since 1 April, four of the initial eight caverns from the first construction phase have been filled with gas for the first time. The remaining four caverns will be filled over the coming year. EWE has invested more than €300 million so far in the construction of the first eight caverns. Of this, around €60 million has flowed into the region, allowing many regional trade and service companies to benefit.
The first construction phase of the Jemgum storage facility means that EWE has increased its total storage capacity of almost 1.8 billion cubic metres by a further 320 million cubic metres of working gas volume.
“Lower Saxony is the most significant production and storage region in Germany as well as its natural gas hub. The Jemgum natural gas storage facility means that EWE is creating the infrastructure for increased security of supply in Germany,” emphasised Olaf Lies. He went on to say that, once again, EWE has also demonstrated its significance as a key employer in the region with the project.
“Natural gas storage is becoming more and more important in Germany and Europe due to increasing dependence on imports and the highly dynamic natural gas market. The downward trend in natural gas production in Western Europe as well as the constantly changing market conditions are making natural gas storage facilities attractive and necessary,” explained Werner Brinker. In his view, the significance of natural gas storage facilities is in part based on the fact that natural gas and bio natural gas are an “indispensable element in our supply system” both today and for the coming decades. Modern gas-fired power plants are seen as ideally suited to compensate for the fluctuations resulting from the increased feed-in of renewable energies and as an ideal partner for renewable energies due to their low carbon dioxide emissions.
Paul Grönefeld, Technical Managing Director of EWE GASSPEICHER GmbH, highlighted the favourable geographic position of the Jemgum storage facility: “Jemgum provides access to many large pipeline networks and import points for high-grade gas, as well as offering good accessibility for the market areas of GASPOOL, TTF and NetConnect Germany.” This means that storage facility customers can benefit from these excellent conditions in order to participate successfully in gas trading or the control energy market.
