Experts: The importance of Czech gas storage facilities will grow, and state interest in them is understandable

The importance of domestic gas storage facilities will grow in the future, making the state’s interest in gaining greater control over them understandable, energy experts and analysts contacted by the Czech News Agency (ČTK) say. The investment, which is likely to exceed CZK 10 billion, will pay off, they say. At the same time, however, they warn that it could limit some other investment in strengthening the electricity grid in the future.

The state-owned energy transmission system operator ČEPS will buy six underground gas storage facilities from the RWE Group, the government decided on Wednesday. It says the aim is to gain control over gas management. The storage facilities have a combined capacity of 2.7 billion cubic meters and should cover about 36 percent of annual consumption.

“Storage facilities are an essential part of gas infrastructure, without which reliable operation would be hard to imagine. From a commercial perspective, the large differences between summer and winter gas prices are also proving to encourage traders to use this capacity,” said Michal Kocůrek, managing consultant at the consultancy EGÚ Brno.