The price of storage capacity auctioned for winter 2019‑2020 increases significantly

STORENGY’s auction campaign for natural gas storage capacity for the winter of 2019-2020 ended late last week. This procedure was set up as part of the storage reform initiated by CRE in early 2018, in which suppliers no longer have storage obligations and are encouraged to acquire capacity via auctions.

At the end of this campaign, the 95 TWh of capacity put up for sale was subscribed by the 44 participants. The average price is 1.73 € / MWh, compared to 0.60 € / MWh last year. As a result, the safety net, devised by the administration in the event that the subscribed capacities are not sufficient to ensure security of supply, will not be activated next winter.

Moreover, given the increase in the average capacity price for next winter, it is likely that the Storage Term integrated in the gas transmission tariff and which guarantees the operators an authorized income, will be revised downwards. as of 1 April 2019. CRE will publish this new Storage Term in the course of March.