Production, Storage and Transmission Capacity

This is part (iii) of Chapter VI’s reference list of data items (see part (ii), data items on flows and stocks). These data items describe a country’s production, storage and transmission capacity for energy, supporting assessment of a country’s ability to produce and store energy products, and to transmit and distribute electricity [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.62, PDF p. 94, 2018].

(Note: the item numbers below — 6.1 through 6.10 — restart a fresh numbering track for this data-item list; they are unrelated to Chapter VI’s paragraph numbers, which happen to fall in the same range.)

Natural gas storage

For natural gas [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.62, PDF pp. 94–95, 2018]:

Item number	Data item
6.1	Peak output
6.2	Gas storage facility—name
6.3	Gas storage facility—type of storage
6.4	Gas storage facility—working capacity

Peak output (6.1) — the maximum rate at which natural gas can be withdrawn from storage [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.63, PDF p. 95, 2018].

Name of storage facility (6.2) — identifies the facility; additional information on its location or site is also important for proper identification [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.64, PDF p. 95, 2018].

Type of storage capacity (6.3) — three main types of storage are in use:

• Depleted oil and gas fields — naturally capable of containing the gas, with installations for injecting and withdrawing it.
• Aquifers — usable as storage reservoirs provided they have suitable geological characteristics (e.g. the porous sedimentary layer must be overlaid by an impermeable cap rock).
• Salt cavities — may exist naturally or be formed by injecting water and removing the brine; generally smaller than depleted-field or aquifer reservoirs, but offer very good withdrawal rates and are well-suited to peak-shaving requirements.

[IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.65, PDF pp. 94–95, 2018]

Working capacity (6.4) — the total gas storage capacity minus cushion gas, where cushion gas is the volume of gas required as a permanent inventory to maintain adequate underground storage reservoir pressures and deliverability rates throughout the output cycle [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.66, PDF p. 95, 2018].

Oil refinery capacity

For oil [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.62, PDF p. 95, 2018]:

Item number	Data item
6.5	Refinery capacity

Refinery capacity (6.5) — the theoretical maximum capacity of crude oil refineries available for operation at the end of the reference period; for annual data, capacity should be measured where possible on 31 December [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.67, PDF p. 95, 2018].

Biofuels and waste plant capacity

For biofuels and waste [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.62, PDF p. 95, 2018]:

Item number	Data item
6.6	Liquid biofuel plant capacity
6.6.1	Biogasoline plant capacity
6.6.2	Biodiesel plant capacity
6.6.2	Other liquid biofuel plant capacity

Editorial note (source discrepancy): the source table numbers both “Biodiesel plant capacity” and “Other liquid biofuel plant capacity” as item 6.6.2 [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.62, Table, PDF p. 95, 2018] — verified against both raw/_pdftotext/ires/06-statistical-units.txt and its -layout.txt companion, confirming this is an inconsistency in the source document itself (most likely the second occurrence should read 6.6.3), not a transcription error introduced in this wiki. Both rows are reproduced here exactly as printed; readers relying on the numeric code for the “Other liquid biofuel plant capacity” row specifically should treat it as unresolved pending clarification from the source — the same treatment given to the Chapter III coal-code discrepancy on Coal.

Liquid biofuel plant capacity (6.6) — the production capacity available for operation at the end of the reference period, in tons of product per year (for annual data), disaggregated by type of plant [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.68, PDF p. 95, 2018].

Electricity and heat plant capacity

For electricity and heat plants — see Electricity and Heat Production for the underlying producer/plant typology [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.62, PDF pp. 95–96, 2018]:

Item number	Data item
6.7	Net maximum electrical capacity (by type of technology)
6.8	Peak load demand
6.9	Available capacity at time of peak
6.10	Date and time of peak load occurrence

Net maximum electrical capacity (6.7) — the maximum active power that can be supplied continuously (i.e. throughout a prolonged period in a day with the whole plant running) at the point of outlet, after taking into account the power supplies for station auxiliaries and allowing for losses in transformers considered integral to the station. Assumes no restriction of interconnection to the network, and excludes overload capacity that can only be sustained briefly (e.g. internal combustion engines momentarily running above their rated capacity) [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.69, PDF p. 95, 2018].

Peak load demand (6.8) — the highest simultaneous demand for electricity satisfied during the year. The electricity supply at the time of peak demand may include demand satisfied by imported electricity, or may include exports of electricity; total peak load on the national grid is not the sum of the peak loads at every power station during the year, since these may occur at different times. Measuring peak load demand requires either synchronized or very frequent data, typically gathered by the national grid authority or by some electricity-generating companies [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.70, PDF p. 95, 2018].

Available capacity at time of peak (6.9) — the maximum power at which an installation can be operated under the prevailing conditions at the time, assuming no external constraints; depends on the technical state of the equipment and its ability to operate, and may differ from net maximum capacity due to factors like lack of water for hydro capacity, plant maintenance, unanticipated shutdown, or other outages at the time of peak load [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.71, PDF p. 96, 2018].

Date and time of peak load occurrence (6.10) — the date and time on which the peak load was reached [IRES, Ch. VI, para. 6.72, PDF p. 96, 2018].

Related

• IRES Chapter VI — Statistical Units and Data Items — the chapter digest this page supports
• Data Items on Energy Flows and Stocks — part (ii) of the reference list, immediately preceding this section
• Electricity and Heat Production — the producer/plant typology underlying the electricity/heat capacity items
• Natural Gas — the product this section’s storage data items apply to
• Oil — the product this section’s refinery-capacity data item applies to
• Biofuels — the product this section’s plant-capacity data items apply to
• Electricity, Heat — the products this section’s plant-capacity data items apply to