The measure is reportedly encouraged to help avoid power outages this winter
© Getty Images / coldsnowstorm
Germany’s BNetzA gas-network regulator has asked households and companies to reduce heating as the nation tries to conserve supplies during the energy crisis, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The report highlighted that industrial gas consumption in the country declined by 12% in the week through last Sunday while household and commercial consumption dropped by 13%.
The regulator previously said that Germany needs to slash gas consumption by at least 20% to help offset the loss of supplies from Russia.
Citizens should “perhaps not turn the heating up all the way and think carefully about which rooms need to be heated,” BNetzA President Klaus Mueller told public broadcaster ARD on Friday.
“Yesterday’s numbers weren’t so great,” Mueller said, adding that “if it was merely a weekly blip then we can forget about it.” He promised to “observe what happens in the next few days” but cautioned that “we shouldn’t treat this lightly.”
According to Mueller, Germany is currently getting gas from Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and “a bit” from France. It will get more via liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, which the country has started to build, the regulator noted.
“We want at all costs to protect industry from gas rationing,” said BNetzA chief. “It’s up to us now. How quickly we can build the LNG terminals. That helps. How much we can save. That helps even more. We can manage it.”
Germany is reportedly short about 50 billion cubic meters of gas in yearly deliveries as a result of the reduction of imports from Russia. The nation’s previous attempts to diversify gas supplies have contributed to the current energy crunch. EU sanctions pressure, maintenance issues, as well as the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, have further exacerbated the problem.
According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the share of Russian gas imports to the country recently dropped to 6-8%. In 2021, more than half of Germany’s gas supply came from Russia.
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