The Hamburg Senator for the Environment agrees with his city to turn off the warm water temporarily in the event of a gas emergency in autumn and winter. The planned LNG terminal in the Hanseatic city will probably be ready for use in May 2023.

Hamburg’s environment senator Jens Kerstan (Greens) does not rule out a limitation of hot water for private households in the event of a gas emergency in the Hanseatic city. “In an acute gas shortage, warm water could only be made available at certain times of the day in an emergency,” Kerstan told the “Welt am Sonntag”. A general reduction of the maximum room temperature in the district heating network could also be considered. For technical reasons alone, it will not be possible everywhere in Hamburg to distinguish between commercial and private customers in the event of a gas shortage, he told the newspaper.

Kerstan explained that a possible temporary LNG terminal in the port of Hamburg could not be operational until next May at the earliest. “We will know in the course of July whether and at which location a temporary LNG terminal in Hamburg is feasible.” The gas could probably be handled there from May 2023. The full results of the site reviews would be available in October, said Kerstan .

According to Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), the first two temporary LNG terminals in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel are to be put into operation by the turn of the year. The federal government has rented four floating liquid gas terminals, Habeck told the newspaper. “Two ships are already available this year and are to be used in Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel at the turn of the year 2022/23.” His ministry is therefore working in close cooperation with the federal states. “Everyone is behind them here, because ultimately we have to set a pace that there was no such thing in Germany before,” Habeck told the newspaper.

With the floating terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG), Germany wants to promote the supply of non-Russian gas.