Environmental Engineering Reference
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network access contract. The FNA for electricity, gas, telecommunications,
post and railways is a federal authority within the responsibility of the
German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The FNA's task is
to provide, by liberalization and deregulation, for the further development
of the electricity, gas, telecommunications, post and railway infrastructure
markets. The roadmap lists all relevant steps to making the final network
connection.
The network access costs are split between the network operator and the
biomethane supplier: the former pays 75% of the overall capital
expenditures of the connecting pipeline (up to 10 km), the gas pressure
metering plant, the compressor and the calibrated measurement unit; the
latter pays 25%. The cost to the biomethane supplier for the installation of
network access and the first kilometer of the connection pipe is limited to
€
250,000 (in 2012).
The network operator has to provide availability of the net at least 96%
of the time. The network operator is the owner of the network connection
and is responsible for the costs of maintenance and operation. Article 36 of
GasNZV defines the quality of biomethane based on the technical
regulations G 260 (DVGW, 2008a) and G 262 (DVGW, 2008b) of the
German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW)
(see Table 16.1). GasNZV also defines the maximum loss of biogas and
emissions to the atmosphere as not more than 0.2% of the raw gas (v/v).
This value has to be guaranteed by an official certificate. GasNZV also
regulates the account for biogas grid injection and utilization, i.e. the
balance between gas input and gas output. For transport system operators
of natural gas, the balance between feed-in and utilization has to be
balanced within an hourly tolerance of ±10%; in the case of biomethane
the tolerance is up to 25%. The total balance has to be achieved on a 12-
month term. This is important because, in summer, the input of biomethane
is usually far higher than the output.
There is a charge for this flexibility of 0.1 cent/kWh to be paid to the
network operator. On the other hand, according to GasNEV (Dena, 2012b),
the biomethane supplier receives an avoided mains fee charge of 0.7 cent/
kWh of biomethane fed into the network.
16.2.2 Technical standards and rules of technology
In agreement with German law, the DVGW sets technical rules and
standards within the scope of public natural gas transport, storage and
consumption. The technical quality requirements and the permitted
methods of feeding biomethane into the public gas network are defined in
DVGW G 260 and G 262. The biomethane supplier has to ensure the gas
quality (either H (high) or L (low) natural gas quality), whereas the grid
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