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Company

Europe’s energy supply sector is facing an exciting future. Natural gas and gas infrastructure will play a central role in this new era. Gas storage facilities will be particularly important, owing to the demand for swing capacity as a result of new energy sources and the growth of energy trading. In response to these needs, on 1 January 2013 Rohöl-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft (RAG) formed a modern, customer-friendly subsidiary, RAG Energy Storage, to market its storage capacity.

The aim of RAG Energy Storage is to meet the challenges of a new energy world by offering innovative bespoke services, designed to make a reality of “value added” gas transactions, as well as RAG’s established storage products. We will also be looking to help clients meet new market demands – especially as regards shipments to and from storage – by providing top-quality assistance with day-to-day storage management.

Working in close consultation with other market participants, RAG Energy Storage plans to leverage Austria’s strategic geographical location and favourable geology to expand its gas storage capacity. This is the only way to achieve sufficient liquidity, flexibility and security of supply for Austria to hold on to its position as a key energy trading location.

Products and services

RAG Energy Storage offers highly flexible storage services that can be used both for conventional supplies to consumers, and for intraday and structured transactions.

Our approach generates extra value added for our customers. Physical storage capacity can also be used to hedge against unpredictable balancing energy and structured supply contract costs.

We see service providers and their customers as a team. Besides providing storage services, RAG Energy Storage gives its customers the benefit of its outstanding expertise in all areas of the gas industry.

Storage products

Besides its long-term storage products, RAG Energy Storage also offers short and medium-term solutions.

Customers can choose between the “RAG ES Premium Flex Storage”, "RAG ES Flex Storage" and “RAG ES Customize Storage” product variants.

The “RAG ES Premium Flex Storage” is a bundle of firm injection and withdrawal capacity including working gas volume with the maximum in terms of flexibility and quality.

With the “RAG ES Flex Storage”  is a bundle of partly firm and partly interruptible injection and withdrawal capacity depending on the storage level (50%). The applicable ratio of injection and withdrawal capacity is 2:3. The working gas volume is available at any time.

The "RAG ES Customize Storage" offers a flexible and customer oriented gas storage solution with primary interruptible injection and withdrawal capacity. The working gas volume is available at any time. The product bundle is customized according to the requirement of the customer.

Storage services

In line with the importance of storage for gas trading, RAG Energy Storage also handles transportation from the virtual trading point to the storage facility. And you can also swap gas inventories with other storage customers.

Gas storage facilities – the energy storehouses of the future

Energy storage is central to Europe’s supply security. The vast quantities of energy that can be held in storage facilities converted from depleted gas reservoirs and their unparalleled flexibility make them a mainstay of the energy supply mix.

The construction and operation of underground storage facilities calls for highly specialised knowledge, extensive experience and state-of-the-art technology. Our parent company, RAG Austria AG, is the technical operator of the RAG storage. It has the expertise to make the most of the potential of former gas fields – safely and efficiently.

Because of their outstanding characteristics, underground storage facilities are suitable not just for storing natural gas, but also for stockpiling of synthetic gas. Surplus electricity (e.g. generated during the night, under good wind conditions) can be used to produce synthetic gas. This makes the excess power storable. No comparable form of storage is available to the wholesale electricity market at present, as such capacity is regarded as a part of the generation function and cannot be booked by third parties on open markets. Gas storage will take on an ever more important role in storing energy because growing wind and solar power generation is resulting in large supply overhangs and shortages. Own project aimed at realising this promising technology and making this form of energy storage accessible for the market are already under way.