German Networks Achieve Near-Record Reliability

The average interruption in the supply of gas to end-consumers in 2017 was less than one minute per connection, Germany's federal networks agency (BNetzA) said June 14.

"The German gas network continues to be extremely reliable; [BNetzA's] regulation will ensure the long-term high quality of the German gas network," said its president Jochen Homann. The regulator found out the supply interruptions for all 724 German gas network operators for the year 2017, and the average value of gas supply interruptions for all final consumers (SAIDI value).

It has now determined that the 2017 SAIDI value was 0.988 minutes which was the second lowest value since 2006. During that period, only 2013 was lower. The long-term average is 1.7 minutes. 

More info about the SAIDI value is available here (in German only). Only unscheduled interruptions due to the influence of third parties, reactions from other networks, or other disturbances in the network operator's area are included in the calculation.  

Average interruption in the supply of gas to German end-consumers, in minutes per year (Source: BNetzA)