Radical break in energy future?
Habeck Ministry triggers earthquakes in utilities
Created: 05/23/2022, 17:08
Robert Habeck (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economics, at a panel discussion during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
© Laurent Gillieron/KEYSTONE/dpa
What should the future of energy supply in Germany look like?
The plans of the Greens and the energy supply companies clearly differ on one point.
Berlin – According to a report by Die
Welt
, a state secretary in Robert Habeck’s (Greens) Federal Ministry of Economics is said to have caused an uproar among energy suppliers last week: Patrick Graichen is said to have asked the industry at an event to start thinking about the gradual dismantling of the natural gas supply networks.
So far, the energy supply industry has assumed that the natural gas networks would be used in the future to transport alternatives such as hydrogen - a dismantling would be a cut similar to the coal or nuclear phase-out.
Only the German Energy Agency (Dena) considers the early discussion to be reasonable and justified, because it determined in a study that the consumption of gaseous energy sources will fall by around a third by 2045.
According to
Welt
, the energy suppliers see things differently so far.
Habeck's ministry triggers tremors with a gas plan: "As if you put the bridle on a horse from behind"
"Getting into dismantling planning now is like bridling the horse from behind," said Ingbert Liebing, general manager of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU), in which more than 900 municipal utilities are organized.
First, the millions of households that are connected to the networks need a viable perspective.
Openness to technology is of central importance.
"Otherwise we will block paths that we will need later without any need," he said.
The Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) also rejects the plan.
"A dismantling of the distribution grids at the present time would be absolutely counterproductive, especially in view of the large number of commercial and industrial customers connected there," says BDEW General Manager Kerstin Andreae.
The former Greens politician points out that the lines supply 20 million households and 1.8 million companies.
"The gas distribution grids are an essential part of our future energy system and strengthen the resilience of the entire supply system." The aim must be "to gradually replace natural gas with hydrogen and other climate-neutral gases".
This is "economically efficient and can make a decisive contribution to security of supply".
Political dispute about the heat pump?
Allegations by energy suppliers to the Greens
VKU boss Liebing also expressed doubts about the plans of the Federal Ministry of Economics under Robert Habeck to replace gas heating systems with heat pumps in the future.
Gerald Linke, head of the technically oriented German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW), chose drastic words for his criticism: "They try with all their might to force a certain technology, the heat pump, onto the market without the heat customer being affected will help.
It will only be expensive for them, very expensive.” Graichen's demand was “obviously driven by ideology”.
Heat pumps convert heat present in water, soil and air into energy.
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