Lowering the heating by one degree would have a “not insignificant” effect on gas consumption, the boss of French energy giant Engie said on Monday, as Europeans seek to reduce their dependence on Russia.
If the sanctions against Russia were to be extended to its energy sector, in the face of the invasion of Ukraine, “Europe could run out of gas next winter”, underlined the director general of Engie, Catherine MacGregor, on France Inter.
“So it will be necessary to take a certain number of measures, which are already anticipated by the government and the public authorities”, she continued.
Asked about the one-degree drop in heating, she calculated that this “would roughly correspond to 12-15 terawatt hours”: “it’s the equivalent of 12-15 LNG ships that would arrive in France, so this doesn’t is not negligible at all. “It’s a measure that could work,” she said.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) mentioned this possibility last week, among its 10 proposals to rapidly reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas.
In 2021, the European Union imported 155 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia, or 45% of its imports and 40% of its total consumption.
A drop in thermostats would represent a reduction of nearly 10 billion cubic meters per degree less heating, the IEA calculated. The average temperature is currently set “above 22°C” in the European Union, she said.
“We are all going to have to make an effort. All realize that we are entering a new world”, judged Monday the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, on BFMTV. “The Minister of the Economy is not here to say to do this or that. I am simply saying that collectively we are all going to have to pay much more attention to our energy consumption,” he said.