Gas storage full: what does that mean for consumers?

Will prices go down soon?

Created: 11/11/2022, 5:09 p.m

By: Stella Henrich

The gas storage facilities in Germany are currently almost 100 percent full.

The weather has also been mild so far.

Consumers do not need to heat, or only a little.

So could prices go down again soon?

Munich ‒ Actually good news: the gas storage facilities are almost full to the brim, and the weather is playing into the hands of consumers with its mild temperatures.

The heating is still off in many places.

Most consumers only feel uneasy when they look at the prices for gas and electricity.

But the traffic light coalition has already launched the first relief as emergency aid for December.

Later ones - such as the electricity and gas price brakes - will soon follow for consumers in this country.

Parliament has already waved through a number of one-off payments and grants for families, tenants and owners.

One or the other will certainly ask themselves: Shouldn't the prices for energy also drop again when the tanks are full and the weather is good?

But the calculation is obviously not that simple.

Because it will soon be cold and liquid gas could become scarce, fears Fabian Huneke from the consulting firm Energy Brainpool, looking at the prices.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, the price of natural gas for consumers rose by 109.8 percent this October compared to the same month last year.

Full gas storage facilities: weather and storage capacity determine the price

Andreas Fischer, energy economist from the German Economic Institute, is somewhat more optimistic in his assessment.

He believes that additional volumes of gas scheduled to flow into Germany this winter would have a price-dampening effect.

But he also knows that the price development depends on the demand in the winter months and the temperatures.

Thanks to the good weather, Germany has used significantly less gas than usual since the beginning of October.

"In the past few weeks, daily consumption has been permanently below the net gas flow to Germany," as

reports with reference to the Federal Network Agency.

In Belgium, Portugal and France, gas storage facilities are already well over 100 percent full.

And the prices for energy are - at least in France - much cheaper than for consumers in this country.

Full gas storage.

Actually good for prices - and consumers.

(Iconic image) © Christian Ohde/imago

Full gas storage: Consumers are not protected from extremely high prices, consumer advocates criticize

But now there is another announcement from politicians to consumers.

With the so-called Energy Security Act, suppliers are allowed to increase their prices to an "appropriate level" in the event of a supply bottleneck.

There is no upper limit to this level, says Thomas Engelke, energy expert at the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv).

"Private households would then not be protected from extremely high gas prices either." He emphasizes that the regulation would also affect customers who have a so-called price guarantee.

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Germans use natural gas less and less for heating

For private households, natural gas is still

in Germany.

In 2019, the average annual consumption of living energy - i.e. for heating, water heating, cooking, the operation of electrical appliances, etc. - was a good 8800 kilowatt hours per person.

41.2 percent of this energy requirement was covered by natural gas.

According to

, gas heating systems have recently been used less and less in new buildings.

In the residential buildings completed in 2021, for example, gas is only used as primary heating in 34.3 percent of cases - in 2020 the proportion was just under 39 percent.

still important for power generation

, even if its share is declining.

In the first quarter of 2022, 13 percent of the electricity generated in Germany and fed into the power grid was generated from natural gas.

As reported by the

in a press release, this corresponds to around 18.7 billion kilowatt hours.

Most of the natural gas fed into Germany comes from abroad.

So far, the Russian Federation has been an important source of natural gas.

In the meantime, the country has stopped deliveries to Germany on the grounds of maintenance work on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

This tense supply situation with natural gas and the uncertainty on the energy markets have contributed to high energy price increases and exploding prices for consumers in Germany.

In view of the situation on the market, in which the price development for energy cannot be precisely predicted, an expansion of regenerative energy sources is becoming increasingly urgent.

However, wind power and solar power are extremely dependent on the weather and can hardly be stored.

The invention of a tinkerer from Bavaria comes at just the right moment.

Georg Tränkl has developed a compressed air storage system with which he wants to generate and store solar power in order to use the energy in bad weather.

After all, the sun is known to be available for free.