Rare but not impossible – this is how the Federal Network Agency describes an incident in the Rehden gas storage facility. A deflagration occurred during storage. The cause is still unclear. No further gas will initially be stored.
After a deflagration, the storage of gas in the Rehden storage facility was stopped. The Federal Network Agency does not expect the incident to have any impact on the secure gas supply in Germany, as it announced. The plant in the district of Diepholz in Lower Saxony is the largest gas storage facility in Germany.
The storage facility was shut down as a precaution. Experts from the operating company and an employee of the supervisory authority – the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) – determined the cause of the deflagration. There is no evidence of external influence, said a LBEG spokesman. Such an incident does not happen often. But “where technology is in use, something like this can happen.”
The deflagration happened on a so-called torch. According to the information, this is a safety device that is used, for example, to reduce pressure. “It’s now like when an emergency exit door no longer opens,” said the spokesman. No one was injured by the deflagration; no impact on the environment has been identified.
It is not yet possible to say when gas storage will continue. “Fortunately, the deflagration happened in a storage phase and not in a delivery phase,” said the spokesman. So nobody would wait for a lack of gas.
