Nfter Russian gas deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 were stopped, the gas suppliers are again resorting to gas storage to meet demand. According to information from Europe’s gas infrastructure operator (GIE), the filling level of German gas storage facilities fell slightly by 0.06 percent on Thursday. The day before it had risen by 0.09 percent.
“It is now being saved again, but only to a small extent,” said a spokeswoman for the Federal Network Agency on Thursday. In view of the lack of deliveries from Russia, the gas suppliers used other means. They either shopped elsewhere in the market or resorted to the gas storage facilities. That is also a question of price.
In order to avoid a gas shortage in winter, Germany is currently trying to fill its gas storage facilities as quickly as possible. According to the law, the gas storage tanks should be 80 percent full by October 1st and 90 percent by November 1st. However, Germany is still a long way from this goal. The gas storage tanks are just 64.5 percent full.
19 degrees room temperature
The fact that the gas storage tanks are no longer being filled up is largely due to the stop in Russian deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1. No gas has been delivered through the last most important route for Russian natural gas to Germany since Monday due to maintenance work. According to the operating company, the work should last until July 21. In Germany there is concern that the pipeline will not be put back into operation after the maintenance work and that gas will run out in winter.
In the meantime, the EU Commission has also presented a strategy to save gas in Europe. For Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, lowering the room temperature by one or two degrees was always one of the most prominent steps to reduce dependency on Russian energy supplies. So it is hardly surprising that the Commission is starting right here to counteract an impending complete halt to deliveries.
In the emergency plan that the authority intends to present in the middle of next week, it calls on member states to limit the room temperature in public buildings, offices and commercial buildings to 19 degrees. At the same time, air conditioning systems should cool the rooms down to a maximum of 25 degrees. The FAZ has a draft of the “winter strategy”.
In order to reduce consumption in private households, the Commission is backing a public campaign such as that already initiated by the federal government. The public sector has a role model function, but also plays an important role given that it accounts for 30 percent of energy consumption. The reason why the EU Commission does not set specifications for the room temperature in private households is that they enjoy special protection in the event of gas bottlenecks under the applicable EU regulations.
However, this should not prevent the states from taking steps to reduce consumption for electricity generation as a whole, according to the emergency plan. Together, households, the public sector and industry could save 13 billion cubic meters of gas.
