Gas emergency in Germany: Hamburg is preparing citizens for cuts in hot water

Created: 04/07/2022 04:48

By: Markus Hofstetter

Warm water could soon only be available in Hamburg at certain times.

The gas crisis arrives in Germany.

Hamburg - In view of the gas crisis and rising energy prices due to the Ukraine war, there is growing concern in German cities that municipal utilities will get into serious economic difficulties.

One consequence of this would be a threat to security of supply.

If the public utilities were to pass on the sharply rising prices, many households would be overwhelmed by the costs.

If they do not pass this on, many municipal suppliers could slide into insolvency, according to the general manager of the German Association of Cities, Helmut Dedy, to the German Press Agency.

Gas emergency in Germany: Warm water could only be available in Hamburg at certain times

Now the Hanseatic City of Hamburg is preparing its citizens for possible restrictions.

Environment Senator Jens Kerstan (Die Grünen) said in the newspaper

that in the event of a gas emergency in the Hanseatic city, he would not rule out a limitation on hot water for private households.

"In an acute gas shortage, warm water could only be made available at certain times of the day in an emergency," says Kerstan.

A general reduction of the maximum room temperature in the district heating network could also be considered.

"In Hamburg, for technical reasons alone, it will not be possible everywhere to distinguish between commercial and private customers in the event of a gas shortage," Kerstan continued.

"However, if we do not manage to save enough gas in the large companies, we could face delivery restrictions that may then affect individual parts of the city."

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Gas emergency in Germany: People should do without full baths

In an interview with the

, Kerstan also warned people not to take full baths, to take shorter showers, to install energy-saving shower heads and modern thermostats and to have the heaters adjusted better.

The more you save now, the better the situation will be in winter because the storage tanks fill up.

The environment senator also announced that a possible provisional liquid gas terminal in Hamburg would be ready for operation in the middle of next year at the earliest.

"We will know in the course of July whether and at which location a temporary LNG terminal in Hamburg is feasible," he said.

"The gas could probably be handled there from May 2023." The full results of the site reviews would be available in October 2022.

Gas emergency in Germany: worry that Russia will not open the gas tap again

The concerns in Hamburg are not unjustified.

Robert Habeck (Die Grünen) has already warned of a “price explosion” for gas.

The Federal Minister of Economics referred to a possible total failure of Russian gas supplies.

On July 11, Nord Stream begins annual maintenance work, which usually lasts ten days.

Then no gas flows through Nord Stream 1. The big concern is that Russia will not turn on the gas tap again after the maintenance.