Germany has to save more gas than any other EU country

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Nord Stream 1 receiving station in Lubmin

Photo: Edouard Merlo / AFP

Germany has to reduce its gas consumption more than any other EU country in order to achieve the European Union's savings target of 15 percent.

This is based on a calculation by the German Press Agency based on data from the EU Commission.

According to this, between the beginning of August and March next year Germany will have to consume a good ten billion cubic meters less gas in order to achieve the target set by the EU countries.

This means that Europe's largest economy has to save more in absolute terms than others because of its comparatively high gas consumption.

Italy follows in second place, with a required saving of just over eight billion cubic meters by March next year.

France and the Netherlands both need to use around five billion cubic meters less.

Overall, the EU has to save around 45 billion cubic meters of gas

Germany would be responsible for almost a quarter of the savings.

The EU countries recently agreed on an emergency plan due to fears of a stop in Russian gas supplies.

The plan calls for a voluntary 15 percent reduction in national consumption over the period from August 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, compared to the average consumption over the same period over the past five years.

If not enough is saved and there are far-reaching supply bottlenecks, a Union alarm with binding savings targets can be triggered.

The amount of gas that can be saved in Germany is roughly equivalent to the average annual consumption of five million four-person households.

Because 10 billion cubic meters of gas correspond to about 100 billion kilowatt hours.

A typical four-person household in Germany consumes around 20,000 kilowatt hours a year.

Industry calls for more speed in saving

According to Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), Germany is already on the right track.

Accordingly, the Federal Republic is at savings of 14 or 15 percent

but in comparison to the previous year.

Last week in Brussels, Habeck made it clear that Germany should reduce its consumption by more than the agreed 15 percent - i.e. more than 10 billion cubic meters of gas.

Meanwhile, German industry has called on the federal government to speed up gas-saving measures.

The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, criticized that the fuel switch in companies away from gas, for example back to oil, was being slowed down by lengthy approval processes.

Russwurm called for more speed in the implementation of agreed measures, such as replacing electricity generation from gas by restarting coal-fired power plants.

Economics Minister Habeck declared on June 18 that coal-fired power plants would have to be taken out of reserve.

It was only seven weeks later that the first one went back online.

"That's not the speed that Germany needs in crisis management," said Russwurm.

hey/dpa