Enlarge image
Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency: The figures on current gas consumption are sobering
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
After increased gas consumption, the head of the Federal Network Agency warned households and businesses to make greater efforts to save.
"The gas consumption of households and businesses in the last week was well above the average consumption of previous years," criticized the head of the authorities, Klaus Müller.
The numbers are very sobering.
Without significant savings in the private sector, too, it would be difficult to avoid a gas shortage in winter.
In the past week, consumption was 14.5 percent above the average for the years 2018 to 2021, said Müller.
"The Federal Network Agency is currently assuming that a reduction in consumption of at least 20 percent is necessary to avoid a gas shortage."
At the end of September, gas consumption increased significantly.
A SPIEGEL data analysis shows that it is mainly small consumers who are behind it.
This means above all private households and small companies that use gas primarily for heating.
According to the calculations, customers would still have saved gas in August – but the past, colder days would have meant that consumption was then above the average value of previous years for this period.
(Read more about this here ).
Although the German gas storage facilities are almost full, this is no reason for the Federal Network Agency to give the all-clear: Not only the overall balance of all storage facilities is important, but also the filling level of the storage facilities in the respective region, a spokeswoman for the agency told SPIEGEL.
»The gas must be transported to the respective consumer points via the appropriate infrastructure«.
So it is possible that there is a gas shortage in a certain region, while the rest of Germany can be completely supplied with natural gas.
The alleged attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines are also causing uncertainty on the gas market.
ani/Reuters
