Dostosowanie parametrów pracy PMG do aktualnych potrzeb rynku gazu ziemnego w Polsce

The publication deals with the problem of adjusting UGS operation parameters to changes in the Polish natural gas system. It was emphasized that the demand for active storage capacity directly results from the volume of domestic consumption of natural gas and the structure of gas supply to the market. The chart attached to the article (Fig. 1) presents gas consumption in Poland, broken down into domestic production and imports for 1995–2018. The presented chart confirmed the fast increase in gas demand in recent years in Poland. In addition, the graph showed that since 2012, domestic natural gas production has been systematically falling from 4.3 to 3.8 billion m3 . Therefore, the growing demand for gas is met by additional gas imports. In 2018, the volume of natural gas import was around 14.5 billion m3 . Currently, approximately 79% of total gas consumption in Poland is covered by import. The article emphasized that rapidly growing gas import generates demand for new UGS working capacities. The main purpose of the publication was to find the answer to the question of which parameters of underground gas storage are preferred by the gas market in Poland. The costs of providing gas storage services in Poland were analyzed in order to determine the desired UGS parameters. The analysis showed a large difference between the costs of providing firm and interruptible storage services in Poland. Firm storage services guarantee gas supplies irrespective of market conditions and are therefore significantly more expensive (PLN 389.1/1000 m3 ) than interruptible services (PLN 107.5/1000 m3 ). The main reason for such a significant cost difference is because firm services can be used to establish a mandatory reserve, required by law in Poland. The article indicates the consequences of a rapid growing natural gas import trend. The increase of gas import volume results in a large increase of mandatory reserve volume. In 2017–2019, the amount of mandatory reserves increased by about 56% (from 8.5 to 13 TWh). Therefore, the construction parameters of the future UGS should take into account current market conditions. The large difference between the costs of storage services has a significant impact on revenues from gas storage services. Therefore, the procedure for determining the most favorable operating parameters of UGS should take into account not only the reduction of storage, construction and operation costs of gas storage facilities, but also the optimization of revenues from gas storage services. Therefore, the construction parameters of the future UGS should take into account current market conditions. In order to determine the preferred parameters for the construction and operation of underground gas storage facilities, an analysis of the construction of a new UGS in an exemplary depleted natural gas field was carried out. Calculations were made for five different active capacities. For each active capacity, calculations were made for three times of full capacity exhaustion (80, 100 and 120 days). Then, financial analysis was carried out for several variants of the construction of the new UGS based on the NPV index and the cost of construction and operation of active capacity. Financial analysis has shown that in the current market situation it is more profitable to build, a “fast” gas storage with a relatively short time of withdrawal and injection of working volume.