Status: 10/20/2022 1:36 p.m
The Federal Network Agency gives hope for a winter without a lack of gas. The authority improved its prognosis. The storage tanks are full and gas is being saved noticeably.
The Federal Network Agency has expressed a slightly optimistic view of the upcoming winter and the gas supply. The Bonn authority published a forecast paper with four scenarios.
Accordingly, a shortage would only have to be declared in one case. This is when gas consumption skyrockets during a cold phase in February and then little gas that is routed to Germany remains in Germany. In the coming months, it can be assumed that imports will both fall and exports will rise. Depending on how severe the gap is, there could then be bottlenecks at the end of February. An official shortage would mean, for example, that the economy would be prescribed how much gas it could use.
Savings target of 20 percent prerequisite
In three out of four calculated cases, Germany gets through the winter without a shortage. All forecasts assume that gas consumption will fall by at least 20 percent and that three new liquid gas terminals on the German coast will start operating at the turn of the year.
The authors also write that the gas storage facilities are currently being filled very well and faster than expected. Germany is now also being supplied from France. “Thanks to the good precautions we have taken in recent months, we are now in a better position,” said the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller. “We are also seeing the first savings in gas consumption. That is encouraging, we must continue in this way.”
Gas consumption continues to fall
In the past week, gas consumption per day averaged 608 gigawatt hours and was thus 31 percent lower than in the same calendar weeks from 2018 to 2021. Efforts to save had already become apparent a week earlier. The decline is due to the relatively warm weather, but also to deliberate savings.