Status: 11/25/2022 1:13 p.m
The gas supply situation at a glance: The Federal Network Agency wants to use five new indicators to indicate whether there is a threat of shortages in Germany in winter. Meanwhile, the storage levels are falling.
The gas supply in Germany is currently in focus like never before. The question of whether there will be a shortage in winter will probably decide how bad the impending recession will be. Five graphics that look like speedometers should now give a quick overview of the current situation on the website of the Federal Network Agency.
Unlike in a car, however, there isn’t one, but five different pointers: one for each indicator, said President Klaus Müller at today’s press conference. These are the temperature forecast, gas consumption, storage levels, the situation in neighboring countries and the procurement of control energy.
No automatic emergency level
The indicators, which are intended to supplement the authority’s detailed gas situation report, are updated on the website every working day. All five are rated stable, tense, and critical. So everyone should be able to see at a glance what the current gas situation looks like at the moment. “The indicators serve as reference points when discussing a gas shortage and when declaring the emergency level,” Müller continued.
Today, the authority assessed the situation as stable for all five indicators – the speedometer needle pointed in this area. In the coming months, however, one or the other pointer could well change from stable to tense or even critical. However, this does not automatically mean that an emergency level is declared.
The president of the authorities emphasized that the new graphics are not suitable for identifying local bottlenecks. Instead, they should give the public, politicians and decision-makers a quick assessment and forecast of the current situation. “Continuous monitoring enables measures to be taken and counteracted in good time.” When the federal government finally announces the emergency level, it decides itself.
Filling level of the gas storage tanks dropped
An important indicator in the Federal Network Agency’s new system is the filling level of the gas storage tanks. In keeping with the cold season, this has fallen further. According to the European gas storage association GIE, yesterday morning it was almost 99 percent – 0.15 percentage points below the previous day’s value. It was the sixth consecutive day of decline. The largest German storage facility in Rehden, Lower Saxony, was 93.3 percent full, according to data published on the Internet today.
The storage facilities compensate for fluctuations in gas consumption and thus form a buffer system for the market. They are usually well filled when the heating season begins in autumn. The filling levels then decrease until spring. According to the Energy Industry Act, they should still be 40 percent full on February 1st. It should be noted that gas continues to flow to Germany through pipeline imports and gas consumption has fallen significantly.
With these and the other indicators, everyone in Germany should be able to better prepare for a possible gas shortage. Because in such a case there is a risk of interventions in the supply. For companies, this could mean, for example, that the gas tap would have to be partially or even completely turned off. Thanks to the new indicators, they should at least not be so surprised by this.
With information from Jörg Sauerwein, WDR.