INFRASTRUCTURE / GAS SWITCHOVER
GAS SWITCHOVER / INFRASTRUCTURE
city
GRID CONVERSION
A
makes
the switch
A municipal utility in a small town in the north of
Germany is a pilot project for the German Network
Development Plan. It is the first city to switch its
gas supply from L-gas to H-gas.
Text: Carola Rönneburg | Illustration: Maria Suckert
Executive Summary
1.
Gas production in
Germany is declining.
Soon less gas will also be
flowing from the Netherlands
to Germany. By 2030, onethird of the required quantities
must therefore be covered by
imports.
30 GASWINNER
2.
In the future, required
gas quantities will be
compensated through
further imports from Russia,
Norway, and other sources.
This H-gas has a higher gross
­calorific value than the L-gas
which has been used to date.
3.
For H-gas, technicians
will have to convert
approximately 5.5
million appliances in homes
and industrial facilities over the
next few years. The total costs
are likely to amount to some
€1.68 billion.
4.
The conversion of
the grid to H-gas
affects north and west
Germany. In Schneverdingen in
Lower Saxony, the local utility
company has been preparing
to convert the gas appliances in
its municipality.
ISSUE 3_2015
The conversion of the gas grid is planned
to be completed by 2030. The Federal
Network Agency and transmission
system operators determine which areas
will make the transition and when.
ISSUE 3_2015
GASWINNER 31
INFRASTRUCTURE / GAS SWITCHOVER
GAS SWITCHOVER / INFRASTRUCTURE
The transition from L-gas to H-gas
is currently Germany’s biggest
infrastructure project.
W
hen Jörn Peter Maurer
goes to the supermarket
in Schneverdingen, Lower
Saxony, people know and
recognize him. He’s the
director of the municipal
utility company in Schneverdingen-Neuenkirchen, which provides the small city
with local heat, lights the streets, and operates the public
baths and sewage treatment plant. Being well known here
has its advantages for the 45-year-old managing director.
As of October 1, the municipal utility is switching its grid
to a different quality of gas – from L-gas to H-gas. Ensuring all goes smoothly not only requires a good plan, but
also well-informed customers. In Germany, natural gas
is ­mainly found in Lower Saxony, in the northwest of the
country. Some 96.7 percent of German natural gas is produced here, but quantities are declining. Between 2008 and
2013 production levels dropped by one-third. According to
a business report by WEG, the German oil and gas industry
association, the amount will continue to decrease. In addition, supply contracts with the Netherlands, which until
now have been covering one-quarter of Germany’s natural
gas supply, are expiring. By 2020 the Netherlands will be
significantly reducing its natural gas production. Apart
from the decline in gas reserves in Groningen, the largest
natural gas field in Europe, earthquakes in the region have
further limited production.
Over the next 15 years, one-third of Germany’s
gas supply will need to be sourced from elsewhere,
and this will be achieved with H-gas from Russia and
Norway. This step has wide-reaching consequences.
The gross calorific value of H-gas is higher than L-gas,
which means that over 5 million gas appliances need
to be converted, not to mention industrial plants,
biogas plants, and gas-fired power plants. It will also
be necessary to further develop the H-gas grid. This
market area conversion is Germany’s biggest national
infrastructure project, and the costs will run into the
billions. Which grid areas will make the transition
and when will be decided by the Federal Network
Agency and the transmission system operators.
A total of 57 utilities in western Germany are switching over to H-gas. Eastern states and regions such as
Berlin have been H-gas areas for decades. Other cities such as Soltau and Hamelin have already taken
the initiative and switched over their grids by themselves. “We wanted H-gas, the most common quality
of natural gas in Europe, in order to make full use of
Have you hearD!
We’re getting
different gas.
Technicians will
be visiting every
house.
GAS QUALITY
What is L-gas, and what is H-gas?
L-gas (low calorific gas) ) is natural gas with a methane content of
79.8 to 87 percent. Its net calorific value is between 8.2 and 8.9
kilowatt hours per cubic meter. One kilogram of L-gas is equivalent
to the energy content of 1.2 liters of gasoline or 1.1 liters of diesel. It
contains slightly more nitrogen and CO₂ than H-gas.
H-gas (high calorific gas) has a methane content of 87 to 99.1 percent,
and a low level of nitrogen and CO₂. Its net calorific value is between
10 and 11.1 kilowatt hours per cubic meter. One kilogram of H-gas has
an energy content equivalent to 1.5 liters of diesel. Whether L-gas or
H-gas is produced depends on the location of the deposit.
the competition in the deregulated gas market,” explains the former managing director of the municipal
utility in Hamelin, Klaus Arnold. Schneverdingen
and neighboring Neuenkirchen have to convert just
7,500 appliances in homes (mainly heating boilers)
as well as five plants for large industrial customers.
The relatively small scale is why these utilities were
asked whether they wanted to be the first to make the
transition and act as a pilot project for the German
Gas Network Development Plan.
Managing director Jörn Peter Maurer and his
colleagues were prepared to do this, but decided they
Before the nozzles in
homes can be replaced,
the work must be put
out to tender and the
public be informed.
Where germany’s
gas comes from:
from
11% Germany
from the
23% Netherlands
from
24% Norway
from
31% Russia
from Denmark,
11% UK, others.
1 year
3 years
years before the conversion,
the grid operator is informed by
the transmission system operator.
A natural gas office is set up.
before the switchover,
customers are informed
– a survey is conducted.
ISSUE 3_2015
regulates the costs of the
conversion. These will be
shared between natural
gas consumers.
GASWINNER 33
INFRASTRUCTURE / GAS SWITCHOVER
1,000
Following a precise time
plan, all gas appliances
will be fitted with
new nozzles. Very old
appliances will be
completely replaced.
example, we didn’t have any language barriers to overcome.” To prepare for the conversion in larger cities
– Bremen began the process, Cologne and Frankfurt
are to follow – Mauer says that information in several
languages will be necessary. Residents of Schneverding have been informed that technicians from non-local companies will be inspecting their gas appliances
and will be properly identified. The municipal utility logo will be on their jackets and their vehicles will
also be labeled. It will take some 30 minutes to inspect
and document each gas appliance. “And very importantly, the people know that the technicians are not
Millions of households will soon be
assessed. Specialist companies are
being certified and technicians trained
to convert gas heating
systems and ovens.
450,000
gas appliances
are to be
converted
per year.
devices can be converted
by a technician per year.
1.2 cm
34 GASWINNER
permitted to ask for money,” explains Maurer. “This
is a security measure to thwart would-be con artists.”
Roemer makes it clear just how important a precise
survey will be. “There are 16,000 different heating
system models on the market,” she says. The inspectors will document the appliance’s manufacturer and
model, check for defects, and assess whether the appliance can be converted for H-gas. The utility companies in the pilot project know they are generally on
the safe side here. Their gas grid was only established
in the 1980s and the appliances to be converted will be
of a similar age. According to the analysis, only eight
will need to be replaced. For these customers Maurer
is offering a “heat contracting model” – the utility will
provide a replacement and retain ownership of it.
The lion’s share of the work will begin after the
switchover to H-gas. Although one-fifth of appliances are capable of handling both types of gas and
can be adapted in advance, 80 percent will need
to be converted after the H-gas service has begun.
This needs to be done within a six-week time frame.
is the diameter of
the small nozzles,
replacing them
and converting an
appliance takes around
30 minutes.
INTERVIEW
France and Belgium
will also switch
Transmission system operator Gasunie drew up a
transition schedule in cooperation with the municipal utility
in ­Schneverdingen-Neuenkirchen. Dr. Michael Kleemiß (48),
Manager Marketing, explains the main tasks involved.
How does H-gas get to
Schneverdingen?
H-gas is transported via our NETRA
pipeline (Norddeutsche Erdgas
Transversale). We operate the
pipeline together with the transmission system operators Open Grid
Europe and jordgasTransport. The
NETRA pipeline runs from Dornum
on the North Sea coast to Salzwedel
in Saxony-Anhalt and is 341
­kilometers long.
What did Gasunie have to do in
order to connect the municipal
utility in Schneverdingen?
A transmission point was set up
from the NETRA pipeline into the
Bomlitz-Schneverdingen line. We
built a new station on this line and
an approximately 600-meter-long
six-inch connection pipe between it
and the NETRA pipeline.
In which areas is major conversion
work required?
Definitely in the area of LuttumWolfsburg. H-gas arrives via the
Nowega grid at the Voigtei station.
From there we will gradually
convert the stations along the lines
from Nienburg towards the east and
north. The stations on these lines
which have not yet been converted
in this first phase will continue to
be supplied with L-gas from the
Kolshorn station. Extensive
­alterations and disconnections
will also need to be carried out,
particularly in Voigtei and
COOPERATION: Dr. Michael
Kleemiß takes care of the
Schneverdingen utility.
­ ehringen. Construction work will
L
likewise be necessary in the grids
of downstream grid operators.
How much money will Gasunie
invest?
The Federal Network Agency
estimates the total costs of the
conversion at around €1.68 billion.
Gasunie will also have costs to cover.
According to the current plans,
investments between now and
2017 will amount to several million
euros.
Do other European countries have
to switch to H-gas?
Yes, because the Netherlands is
also scaling down its supply to
France and Belgium. And from
2029, the Netherlands will begin
its own market area conversion
program.
GASWINNER 35
Photo: Stadtwerke Schneverdingen-Neuenkirchen
could not tackle the task alone. “We looked for companies that could help us.” The project advertised for bids
across Europe. The tasks of these companies were divided by the municipal utility into individual project
stages. First step is the survey. How many gas appliances do our customers have? Which models are they,
and how old? Second step is the conversion process. As
a rule, one nozzle needs to be replaced and the air intake adjusted. Maurer and the nearby utilities of Böhmetal von Walsrode and Fallingbostel prepared a joint
call for tenders, as they are next up for the transition.
Third step is the quality control phase, which is
implemented with random spot checks. The entire process is being planned and coordinated
by an external project management company.
Maurer is a lawyer and knows that poorly formulated
calls for tenders can have legal consequences. So he
engaged Kanzlei Bommert, a legal firm specializing
in European public procurement law. In addition, the
conversions and quality checks will not be carried out
by the same company.
Maurer says the most important aspect is the project management. Gas- und Wärme-Institut Essen e.V.
(GWI) is handling this. The project manager is Sabine
Roemer, who has been dealing with conversions for 15
years. “It all needs to be organized in a logistically
sensible way,” she says. The process began with a comprehensive communication campaign. In February,
the municipal utility sent information brochures to
its customers, and set up a natural gas office to answer
questions about the transition. The local newspapers wrote articles on the subject. “It became a local
topic that everyone talked about,” says Maurer, and
the project benefited enormously. Each of the 6,000
households supplied with natural gas will have to open
their door at least twice for the technicians. Mauer
explained that metropolitan centers or larger areas
may need a different communication concept. “For
GAS SWITCHOVER / INFRASTRUCTURE
INFRASTRUCTURE / GAS SWITCHOVER
Working in Schneverdingen during this peak period
will be approximately 20 technicians who have long
been entrusted with the task. For commercial and
industrial plants, experts from the appliance manufacturers are responsible.
In other areas it could be more difficult, suspects Maurer. “Large companies will just have to
hope that there are enough personnel to deal with
it,” he says. For grid operators this is an issue of
concern. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Erdgasumstellung (Arge EGU), an alliance of 30 distribution system operators dedicated to the issue of the natural
gas switchover, warned this spring “of a shortage
in professional technicians in external L- and Hgas conversion companies.” They are anticipating
this personnel shortfall in 2018 or earlier, even if
the companies hire more workers by 2017. Arge EGU
estimates that, from 2020, the annual requirement for personnel will be 310 technicians and 29
technical project management staff. The GWI
calculates that as many as 400 technicians will be
1 natural Gas
office will be set up in every town
or city to coordinate the conversion
process and help with questions.
GAS SWITCHOVER / INFRASTRUCTURE
The gas industry is starting a massive
project. Five million gas appliances need
to be converted across Germany to
accommodate the change in gas quality.
needed, each for two months per year. The German
Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and
Water (DVGW) estimates that there will be 450,000
conversions per year. Technicians are currently undergoing training, and companies are being certified for this task. Whether or not these new technicians will be prepared to move from city to city
to handle conversions in larger conversion areas
remains to be seen.
On top of all this, it is more difficult to calculate
the amount of time that will be required for converting larger networks – for example, when there
are far more customers than in rural areas such
as Schneverdingen who ignore letters from their
local utilities or fail to be at home on the requested
dates. Empty apartments that require the building owners or management companies to be found
and open them will also present a problem, reckons
Sabine Roemer.
A natural gas office
will be set up to
answer customers’
questions.
The first surveys are already being followed
by the first quality checks. Experts will check in
at least 10 percent of all cases whether the gas appliance information that has been recorded is actually correct. After the gas appliances have been
converted, technical inspectors will check the work
with random tests, again for at least 10 percent of
all appliances.
According to the Federal Network Agency, the
market conversion will cost some €250 per household and €2,500 per company. The total cost will
come to around €1.7 billion for the entire conversion
area. In the Network Development Plan an additional €1.7 billion is estimated. Among other tasks, the
transmission system operators must lay 300 kilometers of new lines to transport the H-gas, and new
compressor stations need to be built or extended.
The German Energy Act states that the costs must
be shared between all gas supply networks within
each market area. In Germany there are two market areas comprising the supply areas of a total of
13 transmission system operators who have formed
two joint ventures: N
­ etConnect Germany covers
the west and south, Gaspool the north and the east.
The change in gas quality will affect both market
areas. The Federal Network Agency estimates that,
for consumers, the two initial levies will amount to
a maximum of one euro for the average household.
Schneverdingen accounts for a comparatively
low amount of the total costs – the conversion of the
municipal utility will cost €2 million in 2015. This
sum will be covered by the market area conversion
levy. The Schneverdingen-Neuenkirchen utility calculated its conversion costs and notified its market
area supplier Gaspool of the figures last year. The
transmission system operator Gasunie finances
this sum in advance by transferring a monthly installment of one-twelfth of the annual costs to the
utility. From this and other amounts submitted by
the other natural gas grid operators, Gaspool calculates a levy for the following year that all grid
operators in its market area will pay. It is based on
the utilized capacity. For 2015 a total of €5.7 million
has been calculated.
On October 1, at precisely six o’clock in the
evening, H-gas from the Am Südring transfer station will begin to flow through Schneverdingen’s
pipes and displace the L-gas. Maurer is pretty sure
that customers won’t notice any difference. However, during the conversion phase, he is expecting
many calls to the natural gas office – for example,
from customers wanting to change their scheduled
conversion dates. Here, too, he thinks about the
wider situation: “Larger cities will probably have
to set up call centers so that they are able to talk to
their customers.”
Across Germany
there will be up to
450
natural gas
offices.
10%
of the converted gas appliances
will undergo a random
quality check.
Thank you for
your cooperation.
Everything is working
as it should.
The conversion is free of charge for customers –
neither the natural gas offices nor the technicians
are permitted to invoice customers.
36 GASWINNER
ISSUE 3_2015
Summary
4.3
Million
gas customers will be supplied with
H-gas by 2030.
300
Kilometers
of new lines are planned in order
to transport this additional
H-gas. According to the Network
Development Plan, the costs for this
and other necessary investments
will amount to
€1.7 Billion.
37