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Natural gas storage in Britain
Gas storage plays a crucial role in the flexibility and security of Britain’s energy industry.
This article explains the status of Britain’s gas storage facilities and their impact on electricity and gas supplies. We cover:
- Gas storage facilities in Britain
- National Transmission System and gas storage
- Impact on energy security
Gas storage facilities in Britain
There are nine active natural gas storage facilities in Britain, which together provide 3.2 billion cubic metres of storage—enough to supply the entire country for a week during peak winter demand.
The table below shows the locations, owners, and capacities of each natural gas storage site.
| Owner | Site | Location | Type | Capacity (billion cubic meters) | Capacity days (UK average gas use) | Capacity days (UK peak gas use) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish and Southern Energy & Statoil | Aldbrough | East Yorkshire | Salt cavern | 0.29 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Uniper | Holford | Cheshire | Salt cavern | 0.24 | 1.0 | 0.6 |
| Scottish and Southern Energy | Hornsea | East Yorkshire | Salt cavern | 0.31 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| EDF Trading | Holehouse Farm | Cheshire | Salt cavern | 0.02 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Humbly Grove Energy | Humbly Grove | Hampshire | Depleted field | 0.28 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Scottish Power | Hatfield Moor | South Yorkshire | Depleted field | 0.11 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| EDF Energy | Hill Top Farm | Cheshire | Salt cavern | 0.06 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Storenergy | Stublach | Cheshire | Salt cavern | 0.41 | 1.6 | 0.9 |
| Centrica (British Gas) | Rough | Southern North Sea | Depleted field | 1.50 | 6.0 | 3.5 |
| Total: | 3.2 | 12.9 | 7.5 |
Source: Department for Energy Security & Net Zero as of November 2023.
To underline their importance in the energy markets, most are owned by members of the ‘big six’ business energy suppliers.
Types of gas storage in Britain
Gas storage facilities in Britain use two methods of gas storage, each providing different functions in balancing supply and demand on the grid.
Salt Cavern: Underground cavities created by dissolving salt formations which are ideal for high-deliverability storage. Salt cavern storage sites can quickly inject large volumes of gas into the grid when required.
Depleted Field: These are former gas fields that have been depleted of their natural gas and repurposed for storage. They are often used for longer-term, seasonal storage due to their slower withdrawal rates.
Where are Britain’s gas storage facilities?
The largest gas storage facility, Rough, is an offshore site in the North Sea. Rough was once a gas-producing field that has been repurposed as a storage facility. The North Sea is where Britain extracts most of its natural gas, making it well connected to the British natural gas distribution network.
Most of the other gas storage facilities are clustered in Yorkshire and Cheshire, where the local geology has created natural underground salt caverns. The central location of these counties makes them well-positioned to supply gas to the network during periods of peak demand.
National Transmission System and gas storage
The British natural gas grid is composed of the high-pressure National Transmission System, which feeds gas power stations and the regional gas networks that supply individual homes and businesses.
Domestic and business gas suppliers rely on the National Transmission System to maintain sufficient pressure in the gas network, ensuring that the demand of all domestic and business gas connections is always met.
Gas storage facilities in Britain play a key role in balancing supply and demand on the network. Here, we will explain the two distinct roles gas storage facilities provide in balancing supply and demand:
Rapid demand response
The salt cavern gas storage facilities have high deliverability and can rapidly inject gas into the network during periods of high demand.
These gas storage facilities help stabilise pressure in the gas network, preventing shortages and spikes in domestic and business gas prices.
Since a large portion of electricity on the national grid is generated using natural gas, these storage facilities also help stabilise domestic and business electricity rates.
Seasonal storage
The depleted field storage sites have higher storage capacity but a lower rate of deliverability.
These storage sites allow gas to be stored during the summer months, when demand is lower and gas is cheaper, and then released in the winter to meet higher demand.
Impact on energy security
Britain is a net importer of gas. Natural gas extraction in the North Sea is insufficient to meet the demand of the entire country, so the gas network relies on importing gas from abroad. Gas imports into Britain come from interconnecting pipelines with the European continent, and LNG imports by ship.
Gas storage provides a strategic reserve in case of disruptions that can arise from geopolitical events.
However, Britain’s nine storage sites, when full, can only supply the country with a week’s worth of gas during the winter.
Britain’s gas storage capacity is in sharp contrast with similar economies in Europe, such as Germany, which has the capacity to store 25 billion cubic metres of gas, eight times more than Britain.
There are two reasons why Britain relies less on the energy security provided by gas storage compared to other countries:
- Britain has three LNG regasification facilities, allowing it to import substantial amounts of gas from the US and the Middle East, both of which are net exporters.
- The NTS has three high-capacity gas interconnectors with Europe, enabling the UK to rely on the gas networks (and storage capacity) of its European neighbours.
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