British energy firm Centrica said on Friday it had increased storage capacity at Rough, the UK’s largest gas storage facility, to 54 billion cubic feet (bcf) in a bid to boost resilience in the coming winter.
Closed in 2017, the site was partially reopened last year, when it was able to store around 30 bcf of gas.
Rough, situated in the North Sea 18 miles (29 km) off the coast of East Yorkshire, will now be able to produce enough gas for six days of average demand and 3.5 days of peak winter demand.
The facility now provides half of the UK’s total gas storage, though this still lags behind European countries, Centrica said.
“Rough can help our energy system by storing natural gas when there is a surplus and producing this gas when the country needs it during cold snaps and peak demand,” Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea said.
By helping to balance Britain’s gas market, the storage site will help keep prices down for consumers, he added.
Centrica’s long-term ambition is to turn Rough into the largest long duration low carbon energy storage facility in the world, capable of storing both natural gas and hydrogen, it said.
However, any further storage capacity increases would require significant investments and would require some form of regulated return model, similar to that in place for the UK’s gas interconnectors, it said.
Such a scheme would not require taxpayer money, according to Centrica.
