The facility at Etzel near Friedeburg is made up of salt caverns
in which natural gas is stored at high pressure at over a
thousand metres below the earth’s surface.
The caverns are cylindrical cavities that have been leached out in the underground
salt formation. They are oil and gas-tight.
The average cavern is around 500 metres deep, 35 metres in diameter, and has a
geometric volume of around 500,000 cubic metres.
The gas storage facility currently consists of nine caverns which have a total working
gas volume of 512 million cubic metres.
In the past, natural gas storage facilities have predominantly been used to compensate
for seasonal fluctuations in demand. Today, however, they are also used as a flexible
means of optimising supply, as a reserve in the event of supply problems, and on an
hourly basis to counterbalance surpluses and shortfalls.
