18.3.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 90/127
(40)
Given that, during the nine winters preceding France’s analysis, storage facilities were on average 42 % full on 1 February and 85 % of the cold spells recorded over the last 70 years started before 5 February, the French authorities assumed that a withdrawal rate associated with a filling level of 45 % of working volume is available in each storage facility at the beginning of a cold spell.
(41)
The French authorities also took into account the buffer stocks that the natural gas transmission system operators must build up in order to supply essential social services as a last resort in the event of the failure of a supplier, i.e. a withdrawal rate of 124 GWh/d at a filling level of 45 % of working volume.
(42)
On the basis of all of these assumptions, for the period 2019-2025 the French authorities established an annual need for storage infrastructure of 138,5 TWh in working volume and a withdrawal rate of 2 376 GWh/d at a filling level of 45 % of working volume in order to ensure the network can meet demand during a cold spell (14).
3.4.2.
Infrastructure needed to deliver natural gas within the transmission network (43)
The French authorities also identified the storage infrastructure needed to safeguard supply throughout the country taking into account the delivery capacity of the natural gas transmission network.
To this end, they examined the various instances of congestion in the transmission network.
(44)
The transmission system operators (‘TSOs’) identified the most likely congestion scenario, which reflects the situation observed at the time in a market where, according to the French authorities, suppliers seek to maximise natural gas imports from Norway and Russia, currently the most competitive sources of natural gas in Europe, and to reduce imports of LNG, for which higher valuations can be obtained in Asia.
In this situation, four main operational limitations are likely to be observed (see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1: Main operational limitations likely to be observed in the transmission network when suppliers seek to maximise natural gas injections from north-eastern France (14) Decree No 2020-456 on the PPE.