Gas emergency plan: network agency fears total loss of Russian supplies

Created: 07/03/2022, 06:12

By: Andreas Schmid

Economics Minister Robert Habeck explains the gas emergency plan.

The Federal Network Agency responsible has been alerted.

© Michael Kappeler/dpa

The Federal Network Agency warns of a complete stop to Russian gas supplies - and is already talking about the emergency level in the gas plan.

The alternatives are rare.

Bonn - Robert Habeck had already announced it.

"From now on, gas is in short supply," said the Federal Minister of Economics last week - and announced the second stage in the gas emergency plan.

Because of reduced Russian deliveries, there is a disruption in the gas supply, which is leading to a "considerable deterioration in the gas supply situation," said the Green Minister and appealed to save gas.

"We are in a gas crisis."

Gas emergency plan: network agency fears total loss of Russian supplies

The Federal Network Agency is now choosing a similarly pithy word.

Netzagentur boss Klaus Müller fears a total failure of Russian gas supplies.

The question is whether the upcoming regular maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline "will become a longer-lasting political maintenance," said network agency boss Klaus Müller to the newspapers of the Funke media group.

Background: Russia justifies the throttling of gas supplies with maintenance work or technical problems with the pipeline.

The Russian natural gas company Gazprom, for example, reported that there were allegedly no compressors from the German Siemens group at the starting point of the pipeline.

The federal government sees this as a pretense.

Habeck assumes that "something will be found" during the forthcoming maintenance work, with which Russia could justify further cutbacks.

Energy crisis: Netzagentur appeals to save gas

What does that mean for Germany now?

If the flow of gas from Russia is "politically motivated to be lowered for a longer period of time," says Netzagentur boss Müller, "then we have to talk more seriously about savings."

The remaining weeks until the start of the heating season would have to be used to make preparations.

Müller appealed to all house and apartment owners to have their gas condensing boilers and radiators checked quickly and adjusted efficiently.

"Maintenance can reduce gas consumption by ten to 15 percent," said the head of the agency.

"It has to happen now and not just in the fall." Craftsmen should therefore concentrate on the area of ​​heating and hot water supply.

Video: Gas crisis: What does the alert level mean for consumers?

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Netzagentur sees “no scenario in which there is no gas at all”

The situation seems serious, but not hopeless.

Müller emphasized that the network agency sees "no scenario in which no more gas comes to Germany".

Germany can be supplied from Norway and the Netherlands, among others.

That may be true, but it is a matter of significantly different magnitudes, as a look at Germany's gas imports shows.

Germany gets more than half of its natural gas from Russia, almost a third comes from Norway and only a small part from the Netherlands.

In addition, the situation in the respective federal states is very different.

Norwegian gas tends to be consumed in the north simply because of its location.

"Bavaria is currently almost completely dependent on Russian natural gas," said Detlef Fischer, Managing Director of the Association of Bavarian Energy and Water Management in March on

from IPPEN.MEDIA.

"That's the bitter truth."

Gas emergency plan: What happens at stage 3?

That bitter truth could also befall companies if stage three of the gas emergency plan were to be called out.

Then the state intervenes in the gas market.

Means: no gas for everyone.

The Federal Network Agency regulates who is supplied with gas.

• Level 1

  : early warning level, establishment of a crisis management team

• Level 2

  : Alert level, close market observation, appeal to save gas, reactivation of coal-fired power plants

• Level 3

  : Emergency level, state intervention in the gas supply

What could stage three look like?

"In a gas emergency, we cannot classify every operation as systemically important," says Müller.

“We have to be very careful in critical areas like parts of the food and pharmaceutical industries.

On the other hand, products and offers that fall into the leisure and well-being area would be of secondary importance.

Swimming pools are probably not a critical area, nor is the production of chocolate biscuits.”