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Thermostat on a radiator: Small consumers such as households are responsible for high consumption
Photo: imago stock&people
The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, has expressed concern about the gas consumption of the Germans.
"Gas consumption increased too much last week," said Müller in Bonn.
According to figures from the supervisory authority, the gas consumption of private households and smaller commercial customers in the 39th calendar week was 618 gigawatt hours, almost ten percent above the average consumption level for the years 2018 to 2021.
This could also be related to the recent widespread cool weather, because of which many have already turned on their heaters.
A SPIEGEL data analysis at the end of September showed that the increase was mainly due to small consumers, i.e. private households and small companies that use gas primarily for heating.
However: According to the Federal Network Agency, consumption by industrial customers last week was just over two percent below the level of previous years at 1,370 gigawatt hours.
Consumption must drop by 20 percent
Germany will hardly be able to avoid a gas emergency in winter without at least 20 percent savings in the private, commercial and industrial sectors, warned Müller.
"The situation can become very serious if we don't significantly reduce our gas consumption."
Private households and smaller commercial customers are responsible for around 40 percent of gas consumption in Germany.
The remaining 60 percent are accounted for by large industrial customers.
After all, the German gas storage facilities are now well filled at over 90 percent.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) expects the targeted storage target of 95 percent to be reached by the end of October.
However, the network agency had also warned that it was not just the total filling level that was important, but also that in the respective regions.
Ultimately, the gas must be transported to the respective consumer points via the appropriate infrastructure.
In order to bridge bottlenecks, a dedicated liquefied gas infrastructure is currently being built at about a record pace.
apr/dpa
