Last summer, filling the gas storages was not attractive for market parties. The gas price in summer, when the gas storages are usually filled, was higher than the gas price in winter, unlike previous years. The extremely high gas price also made storing gas financially risky. Although the conditions this year are more favorable than last year due to well-filled storages and a less high gas price, it remains uncertain how the European gas market will develop. Therefore, the cabinet announces a scheme again this year for filling gas storage Bergermeer.

Subsidy Scheme

The scheme consists of a guarantee for covering price risks (the difference between summer and winter prices) and a reimbursement for operational costs (the discount). Companies compete with each other when applying. The lower the requested support, the greater the chance that the company will qualify. To make the scheme sufficiently competitive, the cabinet offers a subsidy for the storage of 11.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) of gas. That is half of the capacity needed to achieve the filling target of 90%, in addition to the part filled by the state-owned company EBN.

The costs are estimated at a maximum of 240 million euros. This amount may, depending on the development of the summer-winter spread (the difference between summer and winter prices for gas), be lower. If the winter prices are higher than the summer prices (a positive spread), there are virtually no costs, just like last year. It is intended that users of the Dutch gas transport network both domestically and abroad will pay the potential costs. The cabinet is working on a levy for this.

The scheme is still subject to approval from the European Commission. The aim is for the scheme to start no later than the end of April.

Filling Bergermeer by EBN

The cabinet chooses to apply a combination of measures to fill gas storage Bergermeer, just like last year. EBN has been tasked with filling gas storage Bergermeer to 20 TWh as far as market parties do not do this. EBN has been asked to hold about 7 TWh of the gas that EBN already has in gas storage Bergermeer until the first quarter of 2024. Instead, EBN purchases other gas to meet demand. For this, about 520.5 million euros has been reserved. The actual costs depend mainly on the summer-winter spread.