€3.9bn earmarked for expansion of national natural gas infrastrustructure over the period to 2026
113 projects to secure long-term gas supply security in Germany
Berlin, 16 October 2017. The German gas transmission system operators (TSOs) have today published the final version of their 2016-2026 Gas Network Development Plan (below referred to as the “2016 NDP”). The document now published by the TSOs is a revised version of the draft 2016 NDP released in April 2016. The current revisions came in response to a decision by the national regulatory authority Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) which was published in early 2017 and which amended parts of the earlier draft. “The network development projects to be carried out under the 2016 NDP are again an important contribution by the TSOs to help deliver the energy transition,” comments Inga Posch, managing director of the German TSO association Vereinigung der Fernleitungsnetzbetreiber Gas e.V. (FNB Gas).
Among other measures, the TSOs’ plans for the future development of the German natural gas infrastructure include 823 km of new gas transmission pipelines and a total of 429 MW in additional compressor capacity. In addition, the final 2016 NDP also features new measures aimed at increasing the pressure on the network of pipeline operator GTG Nord for southbound transports and providing more entry capacity for withdrawals from the Nüttermoor storage facility.
In relation to the Nord Stream 2 project, the TSOs plan to publish an addendum to the 2016 NDP once all permits and approvals required for the construction and operation of the new pipeline are available (including planning approval for the project and permits under German federal mining law). The addendum will then include all those projects described in the previous draft that were removed for the purposes of the final 2016 NDP.
The final version of the 2016 NDP has now been published on the FNB Gas website and can be downloaded at www.fnb-gas.de.