The consultation is based on the actual version attached in the download area.  

All market parties are invited to send in their comments with regard to the GTC.

Please send us your comments in writing by 30st December 2025.

Construction work on Germany's first commercial hydrogen storage facility is already underway. RWE will fill the first cavern with hydrogen from mid-2026. At the same time, hydrogen will be used to pressurise the brine from a second cavern so that it can also be used for storage. Once completed, the storage facility with its two caverns will have an injection and withdrawal capacity of 50,000 cubic metres per hour and a working gas volume of around 38 million cubic metres. Around 70% of this has already been marketed. Commercial storage operations will start on 1 July 2027.

The current tender is for the 30% storage capacity that, for technical reasons, will not be available until 2028. In a market survey in spring 2025, RGSW asked potential customers about their requirements. The findings from this survey have been incorporated into the tender.

Transport and storage infrastructure will play a key role in the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy: storage facilities help to buffer the fluctuating hydrogen production from wind and solar power. This will enable hydrogen produced in the future to be made available to industrial customers as needed.

Further information and the tender documentation for the RWE Epe H2 hydrogen storage facility can be found at the following link:
 

Marketing of remaining available capacities on our homepage. 
 

All market participants are invited to comment on the General Terms and Conditions.

The consultation is based on the version available in the Consultation GTC hydrogen storage section.

Please send us your written comments by 23 May 2025 at the latest.

Following the consultation, we will review the feedback received and publish the final version of the GTC H₂.

Market participants having a concrete interest in booking storage capacities in Epe L-Gas are invited to contact us until 24/01/2025. Our Sales Team is looking forward to hearing from you.

Our storage Epe-Gas will be switched from L-Gas to H-Gas as part of the German market area conversion. In this regard, RGSW is currently in discussion with Open Grid Europe GmbH as adjacent grid operator and further relevant stakeholders. 

More information about the market area conversion you can find on the homepage of Open Grid Europe GmbH.

The consultation is based on the actual version attached in the download area.  

All market parties are invited to send in their comments with regard to the GTC.

Please send us your comments in writing by 30st December 2024.

The team has now received two prizes for this project at the New Gases Innovation Awards.

The project was nominated as one of three projects in the ‘Transport and Infrastructure’ category and ultimately won not only this category, but also the audience award. A favourite from all nine energy projects could be selected online. The RWE project received the most votes out of over 4,000 cast.

The hydrogen storage plant  in Gronau-Epe is currently under construction and is expected to go into commercial operation in 2027. Around 15 colleagues are working on the ‘H2-Storage  Gronau-Epe’ project as part of the GetH2 initiative, which aims to realise the first commercial hydrogen storage facility in Germany.

The public's choice and the number of votes show that the topic of hydrogen and the development of a suitable infrastructure are becoming increasingly relevant.

The ‘H2-Storage Gronau-Epe’ team from RWE Gas Storage West would like to thank everyone who voted in favour of the project and thus showed an interest in this work.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is the patron of the award. The award ceremony took place on 13th of November in Berlin.

All information about hydrogen storage by RWE can be found here:

https://www.rwe-gasstorage-west.com/en/hydrogen/

RWE Gas Storage West will be presenting its plans for the expansion of its hydrogen cavern storage facility in Gronau at a public information event on October 8. All interested citizens and representatives of public bodies and the press are cordially invited to the dialog market: 

RWE Dialogue Market on October 8, 2024 

Location: “Alte Tenne”, Sunderhook 3, 48599 Gronau-Epe 

Duration: 3 pm to 7 pm 

At the information event, experts from RWE as well as from partners will be available for personal discussions and will present the project in detail. 

Information on the project can also be found on the project homepage: 

https://www.rwe-gasstorage-west.com/en/hydrogen

Part of the framework operating plan procedure under mining law is a voluntary environmental impact assessment. This examines the potential impact of the project on the environment with the involvement of authorities, public agencies and the public. RWE submitted the necessary planning notification to the Arnsberg district government in July. Today, the authority has now announced the start of the so-called scoping procedure.

In Germany, the scoping procedure is required by law to ensure that environmental assessments are carried out effectively. It is used to define relevant topics and aspects that need to be considered as part of a project and to determine the scope and depth of the investigations.

We will also provide the public with transparent information about the expansion of the hydrogen storage facility currently under construction,’ emphasises André Tenbrock, Head of Operations at RWE Gas Storage West. As in the past, RWE will be holding several events to provide information about the project and its progress. The next public information event is already planned for September in the form of a dialogue market in Gronau-Epe; RWE will provide information on the time and place as soon as possible.

The transport and storage infrastructure will play a key role in the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. The hydrogen cavern storage facility planned by RWE Gas Storage West will help to buffer the fluctuating production of hydrogen from wind and solar power. This will enable green hydrogen to be made available to industrial consumers as and when required.

The funds will be provided for the construction of a 300-MW electrolyser to generate green hydrogen in Lingen (Lower Saxony) as part of the GET H2 Nukleus project as well as a hydrogen facility in Gronau-Epe (North Rhine-Westphalia).

A third strand of funding has been granted to a consortium developing a 100-MW electrolyser plant at the port of Rostock (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) as part of the HyTechHafen Rostock project. RWE is a member of this consortium.

The federal government is providing 70% of the total funding for each of the projects. The states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are contributing 30% to the venture on their respective territories. RWE is planning to invest a medium three-digit million-euro amount in the three projects.

Markus Krebber, CEO of RWE AG: “Today is a great day for the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. Thanks to the funding from the German government and the federal state governments, the first industrial-scale hydrogen projects in Germany can now be implemented. Green electricity and hydrogen will be crucial in terms of making locations attractive to industry. It is thus vital to also invest in electrolysers producing hydrogen in Germany and the associated infrastructure including storage facilities without delay. Our Team RWE has worked tirelessly to drive our hydrogen projects forward – it is great to see that they are getting off the ground now.”

The EU Commission recognised the projects as Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) in February, together with other hydrogen schemes. This made it possible for national bodies to grant funding.

Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and representatives from the federal states presented the funding notifications in Berlin on Monday.

The Lingen site plays a key part in RWE’s hydrogen strategy. There, the company wants to install hydrogen generating capacities of 300 megawatts in 100-megawatt increments by 2027 as part of the GET H2 Nukleus project. The first 100-MW electrolyser is to be commissioned in 2025. Green hydrogen produced in Lingen will help industrial companies to significantly reduce their carbon emissions.

Transport and storage infrastructure will play a crucial role in the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. Two caverns will be used for storing hydrogen in RWE Gas Storage West’s planned facility in Gronau-Epe. The storage plant is aimed at balancing out the fluctuations in hydrogen generation using wind and solar energy. In this way hydrogen can be supplied to industrial customers as required by the companies. The first hydrogen is to be stored at the facility in 2026.

A 100-MW electrolyser will be constructed at Rostock port as part of the HyTechHafen Rostock project and will produce green hydrogen from 2027. Some of the hydrogen is intended to supply local consumers, the rest to be fed into the Germany-wide hydrogen core grid that is currently being developed. The operating company is a joint venture of ROSTOCK PORT GmbH, RheinEnergie AG, EnBW Neue Energien AG, and RWE Generation SE.

RWE dialogue market on June 4th  2024 

Place: RWE Kavernenspeicher L-Gas, Kottiger Hook 63, 48599 Gronau-Epe 

Duration: 15:00 to 19:00 

Participation in the dialogue market is only possible after prior registration by 02.06.2024 at the latest. Registrations are possible via the contact form for this event on the project homepage named below.

At the information event, experts from RWE will be available for personal discussions and will present the project in detail.

Information on the project can also be found on the projekt homepage .

As a clean, storable and transportable energy source, hydrogen is an important link in the energy transition. Hydrogen storages play a central role in balancing out fluctuations in renewable energy production and is the basis for providing consumers with structured supply products. 

RWE Gas Storage West has launched a non-binding market enquiry in order to design hydrogen storage facilities to meet the needs of the future hydrogen market. For further investment planning,  it is important to determine when and where demand for hydrogen storage capacities will arise. The results of the market survey will be used to develop customised storage capacities. 

Interested parties are invited to submit their storage demand here.

RWE Gas Storage West is developing the first industrial-scale hydrogen storage facility in Gronau - Epe (North Rhine-Westphalia). RWE has applied for funding for the construction of this storage facility as part of the "IPCEI Hydrogen" (Important Projects of Common European Interest) programme. The EU has approved federal and state funding for the project. A firm funding commitment is still pending. RWE intends to take the investment decision as soon as a granting commitment has been received. 

The approval process started in April 2022. RWE submitted the framework operating plan for approval in February 2023. The planning approval procedure included an environmental impact assessment and public participation. Parallel to the approval process, RWE presented the project to the neighborhood, political representatives and the general public at several events.

Germany's first commercially used hydrogen cavern storage facility is to be built largely on the existing premises of RWE Gas Storage West GmbH at Kottiger Hook by the end of 2026. The preparatory construction measures will start soon in order to meet the tight schedule for the project. The relevant planning documents have already been submitted to the Arnsberg district government.

RWE would like to use two caverns in Gronau to store approx. 66 million cubic meters of hydrogen. For this purpose, a cavern still under brine and a cavern currently used as a natural gas storage facility are to be converted and supplemented with the necessary above-ground operating facilities and connections. The storage facility is an important part of the infrastructure required for the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy.

RWE has applied for funding for the construction of the storage facility as part of the "IPCEI Hydrogen" (Important Projects of Common European Interest). Funding approval is still pending. The final investment decision can therefore not yet be made by RWE. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia have already selected projects for which funding will be made available in the event of a positive decision at European level. RWE's hydrogen storage facility is on this list and has already received approval for an early start to the project.

More information on the hydrogen project in Gronau can be found on the projekt-homepage.

H2eart for Europe is an EU-wide, CEO-led alliance committed to accelerating the decarbonisation of the European energy system at the lowest cost to society by scaling up the deployment of underground hydrogen storage (UHS). Launched in Brussels on 23rd of January 2024, the alliance aims to provide fact-based reports and analysis that can serve policymakers as guidance, and that utilise and build on the experience of our members, leading companies paving the future of hydrogen storage across Europe. The members of H2eart for Europe are committed to invest in scaling up UHS infrastructure to meet the flexibility demand in a decarbonised energy system.

Detailed information on the alliance work are published here

The consultation is based on the actual version attached in the download area.  All market parties are invited to send in their comments with regard to the GTC.

Please send us your comments in writing by 30st December 2023.

All interested citizens as well as representatives of municipalities and the press are cordially invited to the dialogue market:

RWE Dialogmarkt 28th March 2023 
Place: „Hotel Schepers“, Ahauser Str. 1, 48599 Gronau-Epe 
Time: 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.  
 

At the information event, experts from RWE and partners will be available for personal discussions and will present the project in detail.

Information about the project can also be found on the project homepage  Hydrogen (rwe-gasstorage-west.com)

• Second dialogue market to present the concrete planning for the first hydrogen storage facility
• All interested citizens are cordially invited

This week, RWE Gas Storage West submitted planning approval documents to Arnsberg District Government for the construction of a hydrogen storage facility in Epe, Gronau by way of an amendment to the existing general operating plan. Once it has received and reviewed the approval documentation, Arnsberg District Government will promptly publish the application documents. RWE announced the start of the approval procedure back in April 2022 and subsequently presented the project to local residents, policy-makers and the general public at a number of meetings. 

An informational “dialogue market” related to the submission of the planning approval documents will take place on 28 March. RWE will use this opportunity to outline the detailed plans of the project to all interested parties. This event will be held at Hotel Schepers in Epe, Gronau.   

German’s first hydrogen cavern storage facility to be used for commercial purposes will mostly be built on RWE’s existing site at Kottiger Hook by the end of 2026. In October last year RWE announced that, in contrast to the original plan, it would add another cavern to the planned facilities, bringing the total to two caverns. The second cavern is located within the defined assessment area for the environmental impact assessment. This is part of the ongoing approval procedure.

As RWE Gas Storage West aims to provide information as comprehensively and transparently as possible, the company has decided to involve the public at an early stage and on an ongoing basis. Interested members of the public can learn more about the planned project on the company’s project homepage (www.rwe-gasstorage-west.com/en/hydrogen/).

RWE has applied for funding for the construction of the storage facility within the framework of IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) Hydrogen. Funding has not yet been approved, which means that RWE’s final investment decision is still pending. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia have selected projects—including RWE’s hydrogen storage facility—that will receive national funding if a favourable decision is made at the European level. 

The consultation is based on the actual version attached in the download area.  All market parties are invited to send in their comments with regard to the GTC.

Please send us your comments in writing by 30st December 2022.

The document is available for download in the download area .

In case of questions the sales team is happy to help.

RWE Gas Storage West is presenting its plans for a hydrogen storage  in Gronau at a public information event on 9 June.  
All interested members of the public, representatives of local authorities and the press are invited to the  
dialogue market:

RWE dialog markte on 9 June 2022 
Place: „Alte Tenne“, Sunderhook 3, 48599 Gronau-Epe 
Time: 15:00 bis 19:00 Uhr 

At the information event, experts from RWE as well as from partners will be available for personal discussions and will present the project in detail.  
Information on the project can also be found on the project homepage  

RWE Gas Storage West is contributing towards ramping up the European hydrogen economy as part of the GET H2 initiative. In this context, a new section for hydrogen is to be constructed at the natural gas cavern storage facilities at Kottiger Hook by 2026. Most of Germany's first commercial hydrogen cavern storage facility is to be built on the existing RWE site.

Yesterday, RWE submitted the required planning notice to the district government in Arnsberg, formally starting approval proceedings. Part of the general operating planning procedure under German mining law will be a voluntary environmental impact assessment with the participation of authorities, public interest groups and the public.

“Informing local residents and the public about the planned project in a transparent manner is important to us,” emphasises Andreas Frohwein, Technical Managing Director of 
RWE Gas Storage West. RWE will hold a number of information events in connection with the project and its progress. People living in the vicinity of the storage facility were already invited to an event and another, in the form of a dialogue exchange in Gronau-Epe, is planned for 
9 June 2022; venue and time are yet to be communicated by RWE. Anyone interested in the plans can find out more details on the (german) company's project website (www.rwe-gasstorage-west.com/wasserstoff).

RWE has applied for funding under the IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) in the hydrogen sector scheme. IPCEI hydrogen is intended to drive the energy transition and in particular decarbonisation forward across Europe by developing technologies for utilising green hydrogen at an industrial scale.

The German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia have already selected projects that will receive national funding if the initiative is given the green light at the European level; RWE’s hydrogen storage facility is on that list.

RWE is waiting with its final investment decision until funding commitment is confirmed. However, in order to be able to stick to the ambitious project schedule, RWE is already pushing ahead with the approval procedure and the planning process at its own risk. A decision on funding is expected later this year. 

As part of the GET H2 initiative, RWE Gas Storage West intends to build a hydrogen storage facility in Gronau-Epe by 2027. Storage facilities are also an important part of a future European infrastructure for green hydrogen.

Most of the facility is to be built on the RWE site at Kottiger Hook. The connection of the cavern to the above-ground facility as well as connection to a future hydrogen transport network will be made through pipelines outside the storage site. 

Together with partners from the GET H2 initiative, RWE has applied for funding through the "Important Projects of Common European Interest" (IPCEI) programme. The decision is expected in the second half of 2022. The final investment decision depends on a corresponding funding commitment. In order to be able to ensure commercial commissioning by 2027, the formal approval process with public participation is to start in the first half of 2022.

The consultation is based on a draft version attached as download. The updated articles are marked with a grey background. All market parties ar invited to send in their comments with regard to the updated GTC.

Please send us your comments in writing by 21st January 2022.

With regard to that change of market area RWE Gas Storage West has addopted its General Terms and Conditions and the corresponding Technical Conditions.

Bochum/Dortmund/Essen/Marl/Münster/Salzgitter, 9 March 2021

Seven companies from the GET H2 initiative show how rapidly the planning of the national and European hydrogen economy is developing. The consortium wants to build a cross-border infrastructure for hydrogen - from the production of green hydrogen to transport and industrial use. From Lingen (Emsland) to Gelsenkirchen and from the Dutch border to Salzgitter, production, transport, storage and industrial acceptance of green hydrogen are to be connected in several steps between 2024 and 2030 under the umbrella of the overall project.

For this project, the companies bp, Evonik, Nowega, OGE, RWE, Salzgitter Flachstahl and Thyssengas, all partners in the GET H2 hydrogen initiative, have now submitted an expression of interest for funding under the IPCEI programme (Important Project of Common European Interest) to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. By using green hydrogen in refineries, in steel production and for other industrial uses, the overall project outlined here should be able to avoid CO2 emissions of up to 16 million tonnes by 2030.

The project at a glance:
In Lingen (Emsland) RWE produces green hydrogen via an electrolysis plant. From 2024 this will be used to supply the bp refinery in Gelsenkirchen. Most of the transport will take place via existing gas grid lines (shown in orange), which will be converted to hydrogen transport. In 2025, it is planned to extend the network to the Dutch border, and in 2026 RWE will integrate a cavern storage facility in Gronau-Epe. By 2030, the network is to be extended to the Salzgitter steelworks and, if necessary, connected to other networks (shown in light blue).

Collectively, the overall project can map the essential building blocks of the green hydrogen value chain and form the basis for an efficient European gas infrastructure for hydrogen. With the integration of a cavern storage facility by RWE in Gronau-Epe, the system, which is based on electricity generation from wind energy, can also make a contribution to supply security. The link to the Dutch gas market lays the foundation for a trans-European hydrogen market. The expansion of the project by partners from the transport sector and for the distribution of green hydrogen in the area is also already in preparation. Other partners from the GET H2 initiative have also submitted expressions of interest for IPCEI funding for projects aimed at building a hydrogen infrastructure.

The companies want to push ahead with the development of a hydrogen economy. However, these plans can only be implemented with the necessary regulatory framework. The current focus is on the amendment of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG). The companies are convinced that the draft passed by the Federal Cabinet at the beginning of February does not go far enough. It does not provide for an overarching regulation of gas and hydrogen networks with a uniform gas and hydrogen network fee. However, this would be the best solution to enable a uniform and non-discriminatory use of the hydrogen infrastructure at sustainable conditions. The IPCEI programme can finance the network construction in part. However, the financing of network operation requires a long-term solution to the charging issue in the EnWG.

Further political steps are also necessary to create incentives for the use of green hydrogen in industry. The national implementation of the EU Renewable Energy Directive 2 (RED 2), which was approved by the federal cabinet at the end of December, is an important step towards making the rapid use of green hydrogen economically viable for refineries through corresponding demand in the transport sector. The definition of the electricity purchase criteria is still outstanding here. The criteria for the levy exemption of green electricity used in electrolysis, which was decided in December as part of the amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act, also still need to be worked out. For the steel industry, a different subsidy path is necessary, as RED 2 does not apply here. Corresponding support models such as so-called Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfD), which favour the use of CO2-free or low-CO2 steel, have been announced in the German government's hydrogen strategy, but legal implementation is still pending.

“The future belongs to renewables. In order to make optimal use of green electricity, we need large stationary electricity storage systems. At RWE, we are exploring different storage solutions”, comments Andreas Frohwein, Technical Managing Director of RWE Gas Storage West. “In the future, we may be able to use our salt caverns as batteries for storing enormous quantities of electricity. Using existing technical infrastructure, they could also be connected to the electricity grid quickly.”

Peter Geigle, CEO of CMBlu Energy AG, also perceives major potential: “Organic flow batteries are based on carbon, which is available globally in almost unlimited volumes. The components are easy to recycle, and water is the largest component by volume. That means the battery isn’t flammable, so it’s safe to use. In addition, organic storage systems use no metal, unlike most other batteries.”

Planned installation of a test system by 2024

To be able to use the salt caverns as batteries in the future, RWE and CMBlu are planning to fill them with an organic electrolyte solution, which will then serve as the primary energy source. As a first step, potentially suitable electrolytes have been identified as part of a theoretical feasibility study. In the second stage, between now and the beginning of 2021, their suitability for use in salt caverns will be investigated in the lab.

From the spring of 2021, once a suitable electrolyte has been identified, work will start on constructing and operating a test system. The planned generating capacity of that system is 100 kilowatts, with a storage capacity of up to 1,000 kilowatt hours. This third stage of the project is expected to be concluded by the spring of 2024.

RWE Gas Storage West GmbH

Essen-based RWE Gas Storage West operates and markets five underground natural gas storage facilities (cavern storage systems) for the north-west European gas market with a working gas volume of about 1.7 billion cubic metres. These natural gas storage facilities, combined with the flexible and reliable services of RWE Gas Storage West, make an important contribution to security of supply in the natural gas market. Looking into the future, the gas storage facilities with their ability to store energy for the short and long term in the context of integrated energy can play an important part in ensuring a reliable and affordable energy transition. The large-scale electricity storage facility based on redox flow battery technology is a step in this direction.

CMBlu Energy AG

CMBlu develops large-scale, hi-tech stationary electricity storage facilities for all areas of the energy system. With a staff of more than 60 at its Alzenau location, near Frankfurt am Main, it is a pioneer and market leader in sustainable organic flow batteries. It therefore delivers a flexible, scalable key technology for the energy transition. Working with leading industrial firms, it designs and produces high-performance batteries for national and international customers.

1st July 2020, the major asset swap between RWE and E.ON is finally completed, as RWE takes over the innogy activities. As a result inter alia the gas storage activities are transferred to RWE and are now part of the "new RWE".

In this context as of July 16 innogy Gas Storage NWE GmbH is renamed RWE Gas Storage West GmbH.

The business will go on and the known contact partners of our sales team will remain the same.

We look forward to a continued good cooperation with all of our customers.