“Another shovel on it”: Netzagentur: Gas savings are not enough

“one more shovel”
Netzagentur: Gas savings are not enough

Even if gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline again – the uncertainty as to whether Germany will get through the winter without bottlenecks remains. The Federal Network Agency is now calling for even more attention to consumption. The efforts so far are not enough.

The Federal Network Agency is asking consumers to save even more gas. In the year to date, consumption is 14 percent lower than in the same period last year, said the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller. “But I have to get towards 20 percent, it still has to be packed up a notch.”

He pointed out that most of the savings were due to the relatively mild weather this year – mainly because of this, the heating was not as strong as in the previous year. If the weather had stayed the same as in 2021, it would have been only five percent.

Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck presented an energy-saving package on Thursday, which also makes private households more responsible and prescribes binding “heating checks”. In addition, energy consumption in public buildings and companies is to be reduced and the filling levels in German gas storage facilities are to be increased.

Price development depends on citizens

The package creates “important foundations to avoid an emergency level this winter through savings,” said Müller. “To do this, we have to fill up the gas storage facilities more, reduce natural gas consumption and organize further natural gas deliveries from other countries.” The emergency level is the third and final level of the gas emergency plan. Then industrial companies would no longer be able to buy as much gas as they wanted, but would have to rely on allocations from the network agency. Exactly one month ago, the federal government announced the second stage of the plan, the alert stage.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Friday that the state would take over the ailing gas importer Uniper and also launched a levy system that should take effect from either September or October. It is intended to compensate for a large part of the additional costs that have arisen as a result of restricted gas supplies from Russia and the associated rising prices. All gas customers should pay the surcharge. The surcharge comes on top of market-driven price increases that are gradually reaching consumers.

Regarding the price development, Müller said: “If I now look at the development at the beginning of the war, then purely arithmetically I am at a threefold increase compared to before that point in time.” How the price will develop in the future also depends on all citizens and companies. “The more Germany succeeds in reducing private and industrial gas consumption, the more chance we have of coming down from this insane price level,” said Müller. “We can only do that by properly reducing consumption – it’s up to us to do that.”

No all-clear

The decisive question is how to get the necessary social support when it comes to saving energy. “I want to give the people a clean slate and say: The prices are tough,” said Müller. “Even if solidarity with the industry is not that important to you, do everything you can to reduce the costs you are facing.” The key message is that everyone can do something. “At least in the ways that I have as a tenant or as a homeowner,” he said. “Anything you can do, you have to do now because it will have an effect.” After maintenance, Russia has been supplying gas via the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline again since Thursday, but much less than is technically possible. According to the head of the authorities, the uncertainty as to whether Russia will continue to supply gas will continue to exist in the future. There is no all-clear.

Müller also emphasized that it is by no means just about the winter of 2022/23, but that you also have to keep an eye on the following winter. It’s “no use if we push the storage tanks down so far that we don’t have to shut down this winter, but we almost inevitably run into a shortage in winter 23/24”.

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