The European Commission today approves an emergency plan to fill gas stores to 90% in six months

The European Commission will approve today an emergency plan to refill gas storage in Europe in six months. The intention of the Community Executive is to undertake a rapid legislative reform to force operators to reach a level of reserves of 90% by October 1.

As of April, the gas storage filling phase will formally begin. During this year, according to the analyzes that the European Commission has been carrying out since last December, the existing price difference is causing operators to not have sufficient incentives to fill said gas repositories since prices are expected to are higher in summer than in winter.

During this past 2021, the level of gas storage was around 10% below the usual average, mainly due to the facilities managed by Gazprom in various EU countries, mainly in Germany, and of which the Commission considers that they are responsible for 50% of the lower existing storage levels. In fact, Brussels is keeping an open investigation into the actions of Gazprom and the operators in the gas market at the moment.

The European Commission and the Gas Coordination Group also carried out a study last February to estimate the risk situation and recommended rapid action to avoid possible bottlenecks that could occur in the event of a supply problem from Russia.

The plan drawn up by the European Commission, and which will be presented today, will entail the obligation to reach the level of reserves of 90%, it will also require that these reserves be certified to avoid risks and an economic incentive will be adopted with the reduction of some of the tolls to facilitate the activity of the companies.

Brussels has carried out a first legal analysis of the measure and considers that it complies with the principle of subsidiarity established by the directives and of proportionality. However, he acknowledges that on this occasion he has not had sufficient margin to carry out an economic impact study, nor to have sufficient experts to adopt the measure.

In any case, the Gas Coordination Group met to analyze this proposal on March 11 and gave until March 16 to make comments on it.

The European Commission is also trying to increase the level of contacts between the Regional Risk Groups and the network managers grouped in Entsog.

Entsog, in turn, is preparing its “Summer supply outlook” report for next April, which will include scenarios of supply cuts from the East, as also requested by Acer’s electricity regulators.