Mr Bieberbach, Stadtwerke München is the largest in Germany. What will be the consequences in your city if Russia soon stops supplying gas?
First of all, the prices will certainly rise sharply again. It’s a dramatic episode. And then the question will be whether the gas bottlenecks in southern Germany are so great that the Federal Network Agency will order certain natural gas customers to be switched off at short notice. In Munich, around a dozen large industrial companies and breweries would be affected.
Doesn’t sound that dramatic.
For the respective companies yes. However, the network agency can also issue general instructions that affect private households and companies, for example, that private swimming pools may no longer be heated with gas. If such individual measures are not enough, proportional cuts are also conceivable. As a public utility, we are then ordered to reduce gas consumption in Munich by a total of 10 percent, for example. That would hit all customers who do not enjoy special legal protection very hard, i.e. above all the companies.
Is natural gas rationing also necessary for private households, as demanded by the economy?
Private households and important public institutions such as hospitals are legally protected consumers. In Munich, that’s 85 percent of all natural gas customers.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck now seems to be questioning this prioritization of budgets. Should their supplies also be rationed in an emergency?
For technical reasons alone, this does not work with natural gas. Because the result would be a drop in pressure in the gas network, which would activate automatic safety locks in many thousands of heating systems in Munich. Each individual heating system would then have to be put back into operation on site by the craftsman. In addition, in conurbations such as Munich, not only apartments are connected to a local gas network in a district, but also clinics, for example, which would then necessarily be affected by the shutdown, which of course nobody wants. General decrees, on the other hand, which oblige households to take responsibility for saving energy, seem to me to be a viable option.
The natural gas storage facilities relevant to Munich are only 40 percent full. So how concerned are you?
Of course, we are concerned that the filling levels in southern Germany are so low compared to the rest of the country. The main reason is the Haidach storage facility in Austria, to which Munich is also attached. I’m glad that the network agency has now announced that priority will be given to filling up the storage facilities in southern Germany. There must be no imbalance in gas reserves between northern and southern Germany. This is a very important topic. It’s not just about Germany having enough gas overall. It must also be ensured that it arrives everywhere on the network. This is a real challenge, especially in north-east and south Germany.
Many municipal utilities are dependent on the natural gas importer Uniper, which is threatened with insolvency. They also?
