The European Commission is expected next week to ask member states to limit heating to 19 degrees and air conditioning to 25 degrees in public buildings, to reduce the continent’s gas demand, according to a draft text seen by AFP. In order to better withstand the drastic drop in Russian supplies, or even their possible cessation, Brussels is identifying for the Twenty-Seven the measures to reduce European consumption by around 25 to 60 billion m3.
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“Acting now could reduce the impact of a sudden breakup by a third“, argues the European executive in this document which must be published on July 20 and is still subject to modifications In detail, some 11 billion m3 would come from reductions in heating or cooling of buildings, between 4 and 40 billion m3 would be saved on gas demand for electricity production, and about 10 to 11 billion on industrial demand, already down in the face of soaring prices. The plan asks states to enact binding heating and cooling restrictions in public buildings.
Deploy alternative heat sources
Otherwise, “significant savings can be achieved by deploying alternative heat sources for district heating, heat pumpsamong individuals, underlines the Commission. It also calls for communication campaigns to encourage households to lower the thermostat by 1 degree this winter. However, the “protected customers(in the sense of EU legislation: households, social services, SMEs) represent less than 37% of total EU consumption andsimulations show that they would not be affected on a large scaleby gas shortages, says the Commission. It therefore prefers to target power plants and industry, large consumers.
Sudden disruptions in supply “could cripple industries that have little margin to cut production sharply or to switch to other fuels, because they use gas as a raw material“, in particular in chemistry, warns the European executive. But “it would be significantly cheaper to moderately reduce demand for a longer period, starting earlier“, he adds. To encourage the movement, Brussels proposes to the Twenty-Seven to set up “auction systems“, possibly covering several countries, which would offer companies “offsetsin exchange for a reduction in their consumption.
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In the event of a total rupture from July (of Russian supplies), the filling of European gas stocks could only be 65% to 71% before winter, the Commission is alarmed, citing forecasts from the European network of gas transmission operators. These proposals from Brussels will be at the heart of a meeting of European energy ministers on July 26 in Brussels.