Prices have fallen significantly
Head of network agency: gas storage tanks will soon be completely full
06/08/2023, 07:35 am
With the current best weather, hardly anyone thinks about next winter. But with regard to the gas supply, preparations are underway: Germany is filling its storage facilities and, according to the head of the Federal Network Agency, Müller, is making good progress. In addition, the price situation for new customers has eased.
The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, expects that the gas storage facilities will be completely full in just a few months. “If everything goes well, we will have full storage by late summer,” Müller told the newspapers of the Funke media group. But the energy crisis is not over yet. “If it’s a cold winter in Europe, we’ll be happy if we’ve taken good precautions again. Also because we have to show solidarity with our European neighbors,” warned Müller. The filling level of Germany’s largest gas storage facility in Rehden was recently given as almost 90 percent.
The prices for new gas contracts had already risen to over 10 cents per kilowatt hour in the months before Russia attacked Ukraine and had exploded to 20, 30 or even up to 40 cents as a result of the invasion and Russia’s supply freezes. Gas is now significantly cheaper again: for new customers, some offers are around 9 cents per kilowatt hour. Which is still expensive in comparison: at the beginning of 2021 they still had to pay about half of it. Further price developments this year cannot yet be foreseen. Saving gas and taking precautions can be worthwhile.
Netzagentur boss Müller said: “Installing a new heating system, insulating the house or having the landlord carry out a hydraulic balancing of the heating saves money every winter. It applies to owners and tenants: you have to use the summer to clean the house or the to winterize the apartment.” He described it as “absolutely unrealistic” that Germany could significantly expand its storage capacities: “Our size and geology do not allow us to do any more.”
Müller defended the purchase of gas at high prices last year. “We had no other choice and other European countries were also buying gas at this point,” said the head of the network agency. Given the situation at the time, the decision was correct. Currently, the market regulates the prices by itself.