New infrastructure for the energy transition – and your security of supply. 

We are planning to expand our gas transmission system to include a new pipeline from Etzel to Wardenburg (EWA). The DN 1200 pipeline will be about 60 kilometres long and be designed for an operating pressure of up to 100 bar.

The EWA project will ensure security of supply for households and industry. It will provide the capacities needed to move regasified LNG landed at the Wilhelmshaven terminal into the German pipeline transmission system. Etzel not only receives large volumes of LNG from Wilhelmshaven but is also the destination for conventional natural gas imported via existing pipeline routes from Norway and the Netherlands.

The existing infrastructure can no longer move all of these volumes from Etzel into the downstream natural gas network, which is why the new pipeline from Etzel to Wardenburg is urgently needed. Near the Wardenburg compressor station, it will tie into the existing high-capacity pipelines to Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin and western Germany. As part of another project, the new pipeline will be extended from the Wardenburg junction to the Drohne station (near Osnabrück). The project will only use pipes that are also certified for the transportation of hydrogen.

According to the Gas Network Development Plan (NDP), the EWA natural gas pipeline will be completed by 2026 at the latest. Preparations for drawing up the approval documents were started at the end of 2022. The aim is to start the planning approval process in 2024.

We are planning to expand our supra-regional gas transmission system to include a new high-capacity pipeline from Voigtslach to Paffrath. The almost 24-kilometer-long pipeline will have a diameter of DN 900 and a wall thickness of 12.9 mm and be designed for an operating pressure of up to 70 bar. Construction is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2021 and will be completed by the end of 2022.

The Nordrheinische Erdgastransportgesellschaft mbh & Co. KG (NETG) is the operator of the pipeline of the same name extending from Elten on the Dutch border to Bergisch Gladbach.

Its owners are Essen-based Open Grid Europe GmbH (OGE) and Dortmund-based Thyssengas GmbH who hold 50% each.

This new link will allow the urgent conversion of the regional and municipal gas grids from low-calorific (L-gas) to high-calorific natural gas (H-gas) in Leverkusen, Cologne and the surrounding communities from the first quarter of 2023. The construction project serves to secure supplies to residential consumers and industry.

TENP III comprises a total of three new pipeline sections built in the existing TENP I pipeline corridor as well as one new station. The new pipeline sections, which are needed for technical reasons, will ensure security of supply in Baden-Württemberg as well as in Switzerland and Italy. The affected sections of TENP I are currently not in service, so the gas flows are being diverted. 

Apart from a section between Hügelheim and Hüsingen, the two TENP I sections from Schwarzach to Eckartsweier in Baden-Württemberg and from Mittelbrunn to Klingenmünster in Rhineland-Palatinate are also affected by the planned work.

The project also includes a new pig trap station near Au am Rhein. 'Pigs' are devices used for cleaning and especially for inspecting pipelines. They are introduced into the pipeline via pig traps, which are the main component of a pig trap station. 

On all three sections of the route, the pipeline will be replaced within the same right of way. The TENP I pipes will be removed first, and the new TENP III pipes will then be installed almost entirely in the existing corridor. 

A total of five different planning approval procedures with public participation are now underway for the three pipeline sections and the pig trap station. Geographically, two different approval authorities are responsible for the section from Schwarzach to Eckartsweier. Construction along this section of the route is due to start in early 2023 with completion scheduled for the middle of 2024.   

For the section from Mittelbrunn to Klingenmünster, the Structural and Approval Directorate of Northern Rhineland-Palatinate issued its planning approval decision on 25 October 2022. Here, preparations for construction work, such as the establishment of the working strip and logging work, have been underway since the beginning of November.. 

Further information on the project can be found in the info brochure (only in German). 

According to the current Gas NDP 2020-2030, the demand for natural gas in the region has changed. Consequently, there was no longer any justification for the gas pipeline from Heiden to Dorsten (HeiDo pipeline), for which planning approval had been sought as part of the NDP 2018-2028. Therefore, the application for planning approval filed with the Münster district government was withdrawn in December 2021.

Based on the changed demand, the original HeiDo project (NDP Gas 2018 ID 436-02) has now been planned as a two-part project comprising a 1.5 km (DN 600) northern section from Marbeck to Heiden (NDP Gas 2020 ID 436-02a) with an additional gas metering and pressure regulating station at the end point in Heiden and a 17 km (DN 500) southern section from Heiden to Dorsten (NDP Gas 2020 ID 436-02b).

The new Rimpar compressor station (Bavaria) will be built in the immediate vicinity of the existing Rimpar compressor station to compress gas primarily from MEGAL I & II. In addition, it will be used to compress volumes to be shipped to or from the north. It will connect pipeline nos. 51 (MEGAL I) and 451 (MEGAL II), as well as pipeline nos. 55 (OGE), 455 (OGE) and 26 (OGE).

The MEGAL (Mittel-Europäische Gasleitung) pipeline system is operated by a joint venture company established by the two gas transmission system operators Open Grid Europe and GRTgaz Deutschland. MEGAL consists of two axes: MEGAL North, a dual natural gas pipeline stretching for some 460 km from the Czech border to France, and MEGAL South, running from the Austrian border towards Rothenstadt.

The new compressor station will essentially consist of three new gas turbine-driven turbo compressor units each housed in a separate compressor building with the associated peripheral piping and plant systems, as well as a new supply and fuel gas building to accommodate all necessary auxiliary installations and systems.

Initial preparations for the construction project began in January 2020. The plant is scheduled for completion in 2023.

Open Grid Europe GmbH (OGE) is planning to build a new gas metering and pressure regulating (GMPR) station in Leverkusen-Pattscheid from the end of March 2022 until the beginning of 2023. GMPR stations are an essential part of the gas network. In order to ensure the constant supply of natural gas from the production regions to customers (e.g.  municipal utilities), compressor stations are used to raise the pipeline pressure to as much as 100 bar. This pressure must be reduced before the gas is supplied to the end user, which is one of the reasons why GMPR stations are required.

The GMPR station in Leverkusen-Pattscheid will connect OGE's existing gas pipeline No. 12 to NETG's pipeline No. 600. It is needed as part of the switch from L-gas to H-gas, which is scheduled to take place in the Cologne area in 2023. The GMPR station will allow pipeline No. 12 to be supplied with gas from the new pipeline No. 600.

The station will operate autonomously, i.e. without on-site personnel, but it will be monitored and controlled from the central grid control room in Essen. It will also be inspected and maintained by specialists at regular intervals.