As of: March 19, 2024, 4:53 a.m
By: Amy Walker
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After the miserable debates about the heating law, Robert Habeck is concerned with the next step in climate-neutral heat supply.
There is talk about shutting down gas networks.
Berlin – After the Federal Ministry of Economics declared war on fossil fuels in private heating systems last year, it is now entering the next round.
Now that the course has been set for climate-neutral heating with the Building Energy Act (GEG) and the Heat Planning Act, the question of infrastructure must be asked.
If many people switch to heat pumps or district heating in the next ten to 15 years, the natural gas network will become obsolete or very expensive to continue operating.
A new paper from Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) discusses the closure of the gas networks.
Consumers should not be burdened by the transformation
The paper is essentially about ensuring, on the one hand, that owners and tenants are informed in a timely manner about the closure or reallocation of gas networks;
on the other hand, it is also about protecting network operators from economic ruin if they are forced to continue operating an obsolete gas network.
The overarching goal is to ensure that Germany has a completely climate-neutral heat supply by 2045.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs writes in the paper: In the future, the gas network will no longer be needed on its current scale.
But the decline in natural gas consumption will not happen overnight, just as the ramp-up of district heating, heat pumps, biomethane and hydrogen will not happen overnight.
It is therefore important to accompany this gradual transformation with sensible regulations and to smooth the waves as much as possible during the upheaval in the next few years.
The problem: All gas customers currently pay the operating and maintenance costs of the network with the network fees.
Since 48 percent of private apartments in Germany currently use gas as an energy source, these costs can be spread across many shoulders.
But this distribution will shift dramatically in the next few years, meaning fewer people will have to pay the same – or even higher – operating costs.
This would mean a heavy cost burden for companies and private individuals who, for various reasons, cannot switch from the gas network quickly enough.
Particular attention should be paid to tenants who have to pay the network fees but are not responsible for the changeover.
Or to owners who are waiting for a district heating network that has not yet been completed.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) gave a fiery speech at Columbia University in the USA.
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
“It is crucial that a continuous, affordable energy supply to end consumers is guaranteed during the transformation phase, i.e. there must not be a disproportionate cost burden due to significantly increasing network fees for households and companies.
If natural gas networks are shut down, the connected customers must have sufficient lead time to convert their energy supply,” writes the BMWK in the paper.
What exactly is meant by “sufficient advance notice” is not described further.
Questions to which Habeck does not yet have answers
The ministry also clarifies that gas network operators are currently prohibited from terminating a connection to the gas network or refusing to provide a new connection.
“A refusal to connect to the grid is currently only possible if the grid connection is unreasonable for the grid operator for technical or economic reasons.
This applies to both new connections and densifications in the existing network,” the paper says.
“During the course of the transformation, this can contradict the decommissioning or reallocation of the gas distribution networks.
In this respect, the corresponding regulatory framework will have to be adjusted.”
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The Green-led ministry therefore wants to give network operators the opportunity to terminate existing customers.
Again, with enough lead time so that gas customers can find out about other heating options in good time.
However, there is a catch here that the Ministry of Economic Affairs recognizes but does not yet have a solution for: What if building owners had actually relied on the gas network to be converted into a hydrogen network - but the network operator has now decided against it?
What if someone installs a biomethane heater but is the only one on the street who still needs the gas network?
Should the network operator be obliged to continue to operate the network for this one household?
Or should the owner be required to switch to a different type of heating?
Householders should contact an energy consultant
These are tricky questions that have not been clarified - and need to be discussed politically.
In addition, it is still not clear whether hydrogen and biomethane will really be a viable heating option for consumers in the future.
Especially when it comes to hydrogen, experts agree that this will not be a sensible option for private individuals, on the one hand because it is very expensive to produce (and will probably remain so), and on the other hand because it cannot replace natural gas.
“Even if we were to use all the electricity generated in the EU to produce hydrogen, we would still only be able to replace around 45 percent of the energy currently supplied by fossil gas,” writes the think tank Bellona Germany.
What should consumers do with this information now?
First of all, the clarification: The paper from the Ministry of Economic Affairs only serves to point out the problems and discuss possible solutions.
Nothing is decided on this basis.
Nevertheless, households should take this as an opportunity to find out more about their heating system of the future.
The most reliable partner for your own heating solution is an energy consultant; 80 percent of the costs are subsidized by the state.