The plan, designed by Brussels, is valid for each country by 1 November. As of November this year and by 2026 gas storages above 80% and over 90% of their capacity. In this context, the Spanish Government is taking measures to save a million-dollar blow to their accounts to meet the new requirements for gas companies operating in Spain to fill their tanks for the next year.
The executive already approved last year exemption from payment of underground storage usage fee for energy companies meet new national and community obligations to increase gas reserves. And now the Department of Energy Transition is extending these partial waiver payments until March 2024 for additional gas that must be injected into stores to exceed the store’s goal of filling more than 90% of their total capacity.
Government-administered estimates indicate that exemption from these payments Gas companies saved around 45m euros in two years. An amount taxpayers will incur in both the 2022 and 2023 accounts through additional credits included in ministry budgets led by Vice President Teresa Ribera.
Since the beginning of the war
This The Spanish government began building an ‘anti-Putin’ shield at the dawn of the war in Ukraine. and just at the end of March last year – a month after the start of the military occupation – it increased gas traders’ safety stock obligations from 20 days to 27.5 days of firm consumption. The European Union approved a regulation in June that forces all member states to reach 80% of the capacity of their warehouses by 1 November.
The executive decided andWaiving the storage fee for 100% of the gas used to reach 27.5 days of consumption determined by the government and 90% of the gas is above this limit until it reaches the 80% mandatory filling set by EU. To bridge the gap these measures will create for Enagás, the manager of the Spanish gas system, the Government has undertaken a 21.6m euro loan in its budget for stored gas until 31 March 2023.
The obligation established by the European Union is to fill 90% of the capacity of gas storages in each country by 1 November this year. Direct marketers and consumers store a gas volume greater than the current 27.5 days of absolute consumption, or even more than 30 days.
“As a result, for the injection-removal cycle 2023-2024, the cost of the stock liability will exceed the current one, so removing the current exemption from the storage fee will not be justified,” the government says in its latest decree. measures against the crisis. For this reason, the Executive has decided to extend the royalty exemption until 31 March 2024 and undertook an exceptional loan of 23.2 million euros in this year’s budgets.
Warehouses 93%
Most member states have greatly exceeded their set storage targets. Tanks in the EU are currently 83% full, but the continental average even reached 95% before they started burning more fuel due to lower winter temperatures.
Spain is among the countries that remain well above the community average. Three Spanish underground tanks currently store gas equivalent to more than 93% of their total capacity. Savings of more than 32,900 gigawatt hours (GWh) have been achieved, according to the records of Enagás, the operator of the Spanish gas system, which updates this data daily.