Adds coal law details, industry reaction, threat of binding measures
BERLIN (awp/afp) – Germany took emergency measures on Sunday to secure its energy supply in the face of recent drops in Russian gas deliveries, including a “bitter” recourse to the most polluting energy, coal.
“To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity. Instead, coal-fired power plants will have to be used more,” the economy ministry said in a statement.
The increased use of coal is a turnaround for the coalition government of Olaf Scholz, which has promised to abandon this source of energy by 2030.
“Bitter, but essential”
“It’s bitter, but (the use of coal) is essential to reduce gas consumption,” reacted the Ecologist Minister of Economy and Climate Robert Habeck. His party had made the rapid exit from coal a priority. A law to this effect should be adopted by the beginning of the summer, he added.
Concretely, the government will allow the use of so-called “reserve” coal-fired power stations, currently only used as a last resort.
The minister, however, assured that this greater use of coal was “temporary”, in the face of the “worsening” of the situation on the gas market.
The Russian giant Gazprom announced this week several cuts in gas delivery via the Nord Stream gas pipeline, against the backdrop of a standoff between Western countries and Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Claiming a technical problem, the group reduced its shipments by 40%, then 33%.
This decision had a heavy impact on several European countries, in particular Germany, Italy and France, which no longer receives Russian gas.
For Berlin, which continues to import 35% of its gas from Russia, against 55% before the war, the situation is “serious”, according to Mr. Habeck.
“We should have no illusions, we are in a showdown with Putin,” he commented.
Faced with the emergency, the government also wants to focus on energy savings. “Every kilowatt counts,” insisted the minister.
A vast communication campaign to this effect was launched in mid-June aimed at the general public and businesses.
With the emergency measures presented on Sunday, Berlin rises to a higher level: a system of “auctions” will be established for industrialists consuming gas.
The State will offer, within the framework of a procedure similar to a call for tenders, remuneration to the companies which promise the most significant energy savings.
A mechanism hailed by the industry. “This allows the reduction to be directed where the damage is least significant,” machine tool lobby VDMA said in a statement on Sunday.
Rationing
“We must do everything to reduce our consumption. And industry is an essential factor”, underlined Mr. Habeck.
This week, the minister even left the threat of rationing for users and businesses hanging over him, raising the idea of “other legislative saving measures” if the “quantities of storage did not increase.
For the moment, “the security of supply is guaranteed”, assured the minister on Sunday.
Reserves are currently at 56%, a level “higher than the average of recent years”.
But “we must do everything possible to store as much gas as possible in summer and autumn. Gas storage must be full for the winter. This is the absolute priority”, noted Mr. Habeck.
The measures announced on Sunday also include the opening of a credit line from the public bank KfW to finance the purchase of gas by the player responsible for gas purchases for Germany, Trading Hub Europe.
At the end of April, the government had already introduced a law imposing on the owners of tanks a minimum filling, which could reach 90% at the beginning of December, under penalty of expropriation.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine at the end of February, Berlin has also been seeking new sources of supply, notably via American or Qatari liquefied gas.
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