The German government announced on Sunday additional measures to reduce the amount of gas used to generate electricity and in industry, in order to accelerate the filling of reserve tanks in the face of the restriction of the supply of Russian gas by the war in Ukraine.
The Minister of Economy and Energy, the green Robert Habeck, declared that the security of supply is currently “guaranteed” and that the deposits continue to be filled, although at high prices, according to a statement released to the media.
However, he warned that the situation is “serious” and that gas consumption has to be reduced “even more” since otherwise “in the winter there will be real narrowings.”
Therefore, he said, the time has come to “take another step” and use part of the tools that the Ministry has already anticipated and prepared in recent months for the scenario of a supply cut by Moscow.
The first of these measures is to reduce the volume of gas used to generate electricity and use coal instead, said the statement, which estimated at 15% the percentage of electricity produced with gas in 2021 in Germany.
To this end, the network of coal plants that are part of the electricity reserve will be reconditioned so that they can be activated “in the short term”, something that according to Habeck will happen as soon as the corresponding law passes the parliamentary procedure.
“We have to be honest, this implies, during a period of transition, more coal plants. It is bitter but in this situation it is necessary to reduce gas consumption,” said the minister, who also holds the rank of vice chancellor.
At the beginning of the current legislature, the coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals proposed to accelerate the calendar for the goodbye to coal, scheduled for 2038, but already anticipated in May that it might be necessary to extend the period of activity in the face of the energy crisis.
The second measure announced today is to launch, as of this summer, a system to auction the gas used in the industry and thus create incentives for savings.
The mechanism, developed by the Ministry of Economy, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) and the coordinator of the gas market area in Germany, Trading Hub Europe (THE), will compensate companies that make gas available to the market in situations of scarcity.
Finally, to accelerate the filling of the deposits, the Government will grant THE additional credits that give it liquidity to buy gas and move forward with the filling of the reserve.
According to a law that came into force on April 30, if the users of the deposits do not act to complete the volumes that correspond to them, they become under the control of THE, as responsible for guaranteeing the balance of the gas network.
According to the new rules approved after the start of the Ukrainian war, German warehouses must be 65% full by 1 August, 80% by 1 October and 90% by 1 December.
This week, Russian state-owned Gazprom reduced by 60% the flow of gas supplied to Germany through the Nord Stream pipeline, officially due to technical problems related to sanctions against Russia.
However, the German government blames the decision for a political motivation, and Habeck reiterated on Sunday once again that the gesture is part of the Kremlin’s strategy to cause insecurity and sow divisions in Europe in the face of rising prices.
Follow us on
