Architecture
The Europe Gas Tracker uses a two-level system for organizing information. Key data is maintained in a database, at the level of individual pipelines or LNG terminals, at the level of generating units for gas-fired power plants, and at the level of fields for gas extraction sites. Each project has a corresponding wiki page on GEM.wiki, in which the data is presented, together with links to sources, additional narrative information, and a map of the project site.
Research Process
Gas Pipelines and LNG Terminals
Data for gas pipelines and LNG terminals is drawn from GEM’s Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker (GFIT). For more details, see the GFIT methodology.
Gas Power Plants
For gas-fired power plants, data was drawn from country-level government data sets whenever available, for example Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur (BNA, or Federal Network Agency). Next, the research draws on data from companies where available, for example Elia, Belgium’s electricity system operator. The research draws on additional sources as needed, including news articles, to complete the data set. The World Energy Power Plant database, from S&P Global Platts, is also consulted. For each generating unit, data sources are listed in each power plant’s wiki page.
Gas Extraction Sites
For gas extraction sites, data was drawn from country-level government data sets whenever available, for example the Danish Energy Agency. Each field’s wiki page lists data sources used.
Project Status
A status is assigned to each project unit based on the categorization below:
- Operating: Units that have been formally commissioned or have entered commercial operation.
- Mothballed: Units that have been deactivated or put into an inactive state but not retired.
- Retired: Units that have been permanently decommissioned or converted to another fuel.
- Construction: Site preparation and other development and construction activities are underway.
- Proposed: Units that have been announced, and that may have moved farther along in development (e.g., have received permits).
- Shelved: In the absence of an announcement that the owner is putting its plans on hold, a unit is considered “shelved” if there are no reports of activity over a period of two years.
- Cancelled: In some cases a sponsor announces that it has cancelled a project. More often a project fails to advance and then quietly disappears from company documents. A project that was previously in an active category is moved to “Cancelled” if it disappears from company documents, even if no announcement is made. In the absence of a cancellation announcement, a project is considered cancelled if there are no reports of activity over a period of four years.
Definition of a Project Unit
For each category of infrastructure, the typical unit is described below:
- LNG terminals: The unit is typically a whole LNG terminal, but sometimes an LNG terminal has different phases in which the capacity is expanded over time by adding more trains (for export terminals) or with more regasification capacity (for import terminals).
- Gas pipelines: The unit is typically a particular length of pipeline, added (or planned to be added) by a particular company at a particular time. However, some existing pipelines are listed as whole networks (e.g., the United Kingdom’s National Transmission System).
- Gas power plants: The unit is a generator within each plant. For combined cycle sets (with one or more gas turbines working together with one or more steam turbines), the 20 MW threshold is applied to the whole combined cycle set.
- Gas extraction sites: The unit is an individual gas field, as defined by the sources consulted (e.g., a government agency such as the Danish Energy Agency).