Saving gas when the temperature is below zero
Netzagentur fears a cold snap
12/12/2022 2:33 am
Households and industry have recently consumed significantly less gas than on average in recent years. The Federal Network Agency’s savings targets were nevertheless missed. Authority chief Müller is concerned regarding the weather forecast for the next few days.
The Federal Network Agency has asked people in Germany to save more gas than they are currently doing. “Currently, the total savings are only 13 percent,” said the authority’s president, Klaus Müller, to the “Tagesspiegel”. However, the Federal Network Agency considers savings of 20 percent to be necessary. “If that remains an outlier, we don’t have to worry regarding it. But it will remain cold for the next few days. It is therefore important that we don’t let up on our savings efforts and hold out through the whole winter,” warned Müller.
The gas storage tanks are currently 95 percent fuller than ever. In addition, Germany is much better prepared than in the summer. “We now get gas from different sources, we will soon have three terminals for liquid gas, from Norway and Holland, via Belgium and also via France,” said Müller. A longer cold spell is still risky. “At temperatures of minus ten degrees, gas consumption shoots up,” he emphasized.
CDU demands Chancellor’s appeal
According to the deputy CDU chairman Andreas Jung, the risk of a gas shortage “is not off the table despite full storage”. Risk factors are a cold winter, too few liquid gas deliveries and too high consumption. “The frost (…) hasn’t hit hard yet,” said the energy policy spokesman for the Union faction to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Nevertheless, the savings target was clearly missed last week.
“This must be a wake-up call for the federal government. Action must be taken at short notice and there must be greater awareness,” said Jung, and called on the Chancellor to call on the population to save more energy. What is now needed is “very clear communication from the federal government: every contribution to saving energy counts!” said Jung. “Scholz’s mantra-like self-praise for the allegedly already secured supply weighs in a false sense of security: We expect Olaf Scholz to speak plain language instead of carrying on like this.”
