On the grid before the end of this year: Austria wants to tap gas storage near Salzburg
On the grid before the end of this year
Austria will tap gas storage near Salzburg
7/24/2022, 7:54 p.m
Similar to Germany, Austria is also highly dependent on Russian energy imports. The government in Vienna plans to connect the Haidach gas storage facility near Salzburg to the grid before the end of this year. This also has direct consequences for Bavaria.
Austria’s government will tap into a gas storage facility connected to the German grid later this year. As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reports in its Monday edition, it is about the gas storage facility in Haidach near Salzburg, which has so far mainly supplied Bavaria’s households and industrial companies with gas.
“We have decided that all gas storage facilities on Austrian territory must be connected to our network,” the newspaper quoted Austria’s climate protection and energy minister, Leonore Gewessler. She expects that “a first connection” to the Austrian gas network will take place “this year”, Gewessler told the SZ. The gas storage facilities in Austria are currently 50 percent full.
Austria is highly dependent on Russian energy imports and is therefore, like Germany, under great pressure due to the lack of gas supplies. In view of the curtailed Russian gas supplies, Austria had already decided in June to reactivate a coal-fired power plant that had been shut down. Imports via terminals for landing liquefied gas on the German coast are also created.
2.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas
The Haidach storage facility is a joint project between the Austrian RAG, Gazprom and the German gas trading company Wingas. It can store around 2.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas, making it the second largest storage facility in Central Europe. According to Gewessler, since July 1 it has been forbidden by law not to use booked storage capacities in the country.
“If customers don’t store, the capacity has to be made available. This is critical infrastructure, you need it right now in a crisis like this,” said the Greens politician. A bilateral agreement is also to be concluded with Germany in order to fulfill the EU Commission’s mandate for joint filling of the storage facility.