The Federal Network Agency still considers a gas shortage to be possible in winter. According to a report, several new scenarios are circulating in Berlin. Meanwhile, researchers also say that Germany must continue to save gas – and can.
How is Germany getting through the (energy) winter? This question occupies citizens, politics and business alike. The Federal Network Agency has now calculated new scenarios – and continues to warn of a gas shortage. This is reported by the “Rheinische Post”.
“If we continue to meet our savings target of at least 20 percent, feed in three LNG terminals by the beginning of the year at the latest and the decrease in imports and the increase in exports is rather moderate, then we will get through the winter without a national gas shortage,” it says in an assessment by the authority that is circulating in Berlin circles.
And even if the gas available in Germany drops slightly from 97 to 78 gigawatt hours, a shortage could probably be avoided – in a normal as well as a cold winter.
But the danger has not been completely averted: If imports and exports develop in such a way that Germany only has 51 gigawatt hours available, “a gas shortage would already threaten by the end of February,” according to the assessment.
Researchers agree that Germany should continue to save gas. Researchers from the Ariadne Kopernikus project, which is funded by the federal government, are saying that people will have to limit their consumption of gas even more in the future than they have in the past. “30 percent of the gas consumption from before the crisis has to go down,” explained Gunnar Luderer, deputy head of the Ariadne project at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
With savings of this magnitude, one can not only avoid a gas shortage with supply interruptions. “We can also limit gas prices and remaining import dependencies to a tolerable level.” In the short term, this is the most important building block for increasing Germany’s energy sovereignty and geopolitical resilience again.
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