Open Grid Europe GmbH Kallenbergstraße 5 D-45141 Essen

Please direct all enquiries to:

Alexander Land, Head of Communications and Energy Policy Press Release T +49 201 3642-12620 F +49 201 3642-8-12620

alexander.land 3 May 2016 @open-grid-europe.com www.open-grid-europe.com

Open Grid Europe to boost north-to-south gas transmission Helmut Roloff, capacity Press Officer Communications  Planning permission application for Epe-Werne loop submitted at the and Energy Policy end of March T +49 201 3642-12613 F +49 201 3642-8-12613  Permission documents still available for inspection until 10 May helmut.roloff The documents for the planning permission procedure in connection with the @open-grid-europe.com 15-kilometre route from Epe to are currently available for public www.open-grid-europe.com inspection at the local government offices of the affected towns of Gronau, and as well as the Heek, Legden, and Südlohn communities. The disclosure of the documents was announced according to standard local practices. The announcement also stated the period during which objections to the planned construction project can be raised with the municipalities affected and the district government in Münster. The objection period expires on 24 May 2016.

The pipeline is required above all to prepare for the conversion from L-gas to H-gas which is necessary following the decline of L-gas production in the and northern . All ecological, soil and explosive ordnance surveys have been completed.

Construction will start at the end of the planning permission procedure in late 2017. The new pipeline is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018. It will have a diameter of roughly 1,100 millimetres (DN 1100) and a design pressure of 100 bar. Running in parallel to the existing natural gas pipeline from Rysum to Werne for most of its route, it will be operated as a loop line.

The pipeline route will start near Epe at the branch line station where the pipeline from the Epe gas storage facility connects to the gas transmission system, running through the district of to end at Open Grid Europe’s valve station in Legden. At the start and end points of the pipeline there will be pig traps that allow the pipeline to be inspected using an intelligent online inspection tool also known as ‘pig’. Areas affected by the construction of the pipeline include the town of Gronau and the Heek, Schöppingen and Legden

communities. The project will see horizontal directional drilling (HDD) used to tunnel the A 31 motorway, federal road B 70, and rural roads L 570 and L 574 and make two underwater crossings of the river Dinkel.

The planning permission documents have been made available online by the district government in Münster at http://www.bezreg- muenster.de/de/service/bekanntmachungen/verfahren/planfeststellung_energie/ lel/index.html

About Open Grid Europe With a pipeline network of around 12,000 kilometres in length, Open Grid Europe is one of Europe’s leading transmission system operators. 1,650 employees provide safe, customer-focused gas transportation throughout Germany. Open Grid Europe actively supports the European gas market, working together with European transmission system operators to create the right conditions for international gas transportation and trading. At approx. 679 billion kilowatt hours (2014), the annual exit volume of Open Grid Europe accounts for about two thirds of Germany’s total gas consumption. For more information about the company, go to www.open-grid-europe.com