As the UK faces blackouts this winter due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Netherlands’ gas grid operator said its import connections to the UK were between the reasons why its supply will be secure.
The National Grid warned yesterday that millions of homes could be without power for three hours at a time if the UK cannot import enough power from Europe.
A statement from the Dutch operator today said: “Gasunie Transport Services recently analyzed that there need not be a gas shortage in the Netherlands if Russian gas was completely cut off in Europe for a year.
“Due to the high level of gas storage filling (more than 90 percent), the doubling of LNG import capacity via Eemshaven and Rotterdam, the full utilization of import connections with the United Kingdom and Belgium and the significant reduction in demand as a result of high prices, the preconditions for this scenario are currently met.”
Unlike many European countries, Britain, where around 80% of homes are heated with gas, has no large-scale gas storage sites after Centrica closed the Rough facility in 2017.
The outage has left the UK with storage capacity equivalent to around four to five days of winter gas demand, down from 15 days previously, and limits its buffer in the event of supply disruptions.