Two cold waves, which affected the whole country with a few weeks intervals, caused natural gas consumption to increase far above the forecasts for normal weather conditions. Enagás, operator of the Spanish gas system, enable ‘exceptional work’ twice a month This is due to the increase in gas demand of households and companies due to the general decrease in air temperatures.
The extraordinary increase in gas consumption caused by cold weather, combined with lower injection of gas into tanks, has caused gas operators to use up some of their accumulated reserves faster. Underground warehouses reduce their stocks to 28.1 terawatt hours (TWh) Until March 5, reducing the padding to 79.7%According to Enagás records.
Spain has exhausted 15% of all its reserves. gas which I had only a month ago due to successive waves of cold. At this time the replenishment of deposits has fallen below 80% for the first time in seven months, has exceeded this level since the beginning of last August as part of the EU’s strategy to protect itself from the threat of Russian supply disruption.
Three Spanish underground tanks reached an occupancy level of over 96.6% with a maximum of 34 TWh in November, causing Enagás to delay some gas inputs into the system. Warehouses have lost a quarter of their stocks since their pre-winter high. With the cold weather at the end of January, Spain lost 90% (to about 32 TWh) and has now dropped below 80% (to about 28 TWh) in the second cold storm at the end of February.
Despite the decline in capacity used by warehouses, Spain remains one of the countries with the highest warehouse fill levels in the entire European Union, currently recording an average of 59% of all continental storage capacity.
Parallel, The tanks of regasification plants currently have a fill rate of less than 46%. Capacity of less than 10.5 TWh as of March 5. Reserves with 16.3 TWh and 72% occupancy accumulated on January 21 before the previous cold wave, or a significant decrease compared to the maximum occupancy rate of 18 TWh and over 80% reached in November.
rapidly increasing consumption
From Enagás it continues to be emphasized that current levels of stored gas stocks mean: The security of supply of the Spanish system is guaranteed despite the fall in reserves and despite having to instantly revise its consumption forecasts due to the increase in demand caused by the cold waves in recent weeks.
Enagás activated the ‘extraordinary working’ state of the gas system with the cold wave that occurred a month ago (between 22 January and 4 February). According to gas records, during these ten days gas demand deviated by more than 13% from executive forecasts for a normal weather scenario, and consumption was 934 gigawatt hours (GWh) above initial estimates. the system operator who updates them daily.
In the new ‘exception business’ case announced by the cold wave last week (February 26 to March 4), the extraordinary increase in demand was 1,695 GWh in just one week, representing a deviation of about 41% from the previous week. He speculates that Enagás lived before the storm.
anti-Putin armor
This European Union Launched a strategy to reduce its massive reliance on Russian gas It is in full occupation of Ukraine and is working to ensure the security of its energy supply this winter and throughout the next winter. Brussels proposed creating a shield to protect themselves against Moscow, which included the obligation of member states to gradually fill their gas tanks.
The plan, devised by Brussels, envisioned that each country’s gas storages will reach over 80% of their capacity by November 1st of this year with over 90% gas storage from November this year to 2026. Most member states have greatly exceeded their set storage targets. Due to higher gas consumption in mid-winter, Warehouses across the EU are now 59% full, but the continental average has even reached 95% before starting to burn more fuel due to lower winter temperatures.
The Spanish government even began to build an “anti-Putin” shield at the dawn of the war in Ukraine, before the measures taken by the European Union, and just at the end of March last year – a month after the start of the war. military occupation – Increased gas retailers’ safety stock obligations from 20 days of firm consumption to 27.5 days.