Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
Gas storage developers could receive European Union (EU) funding if their projects are deemed to help create an integrated energy market, Utility Week has learned.
InfraStrata, an AIM-listed gas storage company, said there is a potential for EU funding to help with the cost of building its Islandmagee gas storage facility in Northern Ireland.
The firm’s commercial development director Anita Gardiner told Utility Week there is a potential to get grant funding from the EU, both for engineering studies and for grants for works, where you can apply for up to 50 per cent of the cost to build the facility.
Gardiner said the EU recognises the scheme as a project of common interest, meaning it is eligible to apply for funding under the ‘connecting Europe facility’ funding mechanism.
“It’s located within Ireland, so it brings benefits from the security of supply point of view to the island of Ireland – the Republic of Ireland as well as Northern Ireland. It also can access GB, and flow gas into GB, so it brings security of supply to more than one member state within the EU,” she added.
InfraStrata was granted planning permission for a natural gas storage facility at Islandmagee in October 2012. The plan is to create seven caverns, capable of storing up to a total of 500 million cubic metres of gas in Permian salt beds.
A data-gathering well was drilled to a depth of 1,753 metres in June this year to assess the technical feasibility of the project, work for which the EU provided 50 per cent of the funding.
Further studies will be carried out until October, at which point, if the results are positive, InfraStrata will then begin to look for investors for construction of the £275 million facility.
Please login or Register to leave a comment.