The Russian energy group Gazprom also announced on Saturday – for the third day in a row – that it has reduced gas supply volumes to Austria. But: Due to the heat in Europe, more electricity is currently needed for air conditioning – and to compensate for this increased demand, gas consumption is also increasing. The tighter supply – Russia has recently significantly reduced its gas deliveries to Europe – is in turn leading to rising prices, also in Austria.
According to information from OMV and the responsible agency E-Control, delivery is also guaranteed on Saturday, according to the statement of the Ministry of Climate Protection and Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) to the APA. OMV has also announced that it will be able to source additional supply quantities from other companies should the need arise.
The day before – despite the 49 percent reduction in delivery – the domestic storage tanks could have been further filled. The memory level is therefore 40.67 percent. The monthly consumption is currently just under four terawatt hours. At this time of year, about two-thirds of this is attributable to domestic industry and about 8.5 percent to households.
Level of early warning declared and hopes for full winter storage
“Since the invasion of Ukraine, it has become clear that Russia is no longer a reliable counterpart,” Gewessler said in her written statement. That is why the early warning level of the Austrian gas emergency plan was announced a few weeks ago. Since then, the Ministry of Climate Protection, the responsible body E-Control and the domestic gas infrastructure manager AGGM “have been in daily contact with all market players and international partners to monitor the delivery quantities, the gas quantities available on the market and the price. daily developments”.
The next level in the gas emergency plan would be the so-called alarm level, the ministry said. This provides a call to industry to conserve gas and replace it with other energy sources. “The decisive criterion is the progress in the memory construction. We want to go into the winter with storage tanks that are 80 percent full. Then we are well prepared. If this goal is compromised, we will take action,” Gewessler said.
Gas suppliers are already announcing price increases
On the gas exchange, the price for so-called futures, or the price for gas at a future date, rose by 50 percent last week. This is the largest increase since the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, reports the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal”. Suppliers have already reacted and announced price increases – in Austria, for example, Energie Steiermark. On Friday, it was said that prices for customers would have to be increased by 58 percent in early September due to the sharp rise in gas costs. For district heating there will probably be an increase of about 50 percent.
The Austrian gas price index (ÖGPI) has risen by about 90 percent since the start of the year, according to the energy supplier, and by more than 600 percent since 2020.
Germany suspects clear strategy behind gas restrictions
In Germany, both Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and the head of the German federal network agency, Klaus Müller, are confident that there is a clear strategy behind gas throttling. “Russia has been supplying significantly less gas to Germany and Europe for days. That should upset us and drive up prices,” Müller told the German news agency dpa on Saturday. Habeck pinpoints a political motivation, calling for energy conservation and warning: “We have to be vigilant. We must not allow ourselves to be divided. Because that is what Putin intends to do.”
Russia speaks of technical problems with the supply – due to sanctions, it is not possible to have a major turbine of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline serviced. This is also confirmed by ORF Moscow correspondent Paul Krisai to Ö1. But according to Krisai, nobody is stopping Russia from pumping its gas to Europe through other pipelines: “Russia is deliberately not doing this, and that’s not for technical reasons, but for political reasons.”
Photovoltaic and wind energy expansion accelerated in 2021
But there is also good news: the expansion of photovoltaics and wind energy gained momentum last year. For solar energy, the increase compared to 2020 was 117 percent and in the case of wind energy even 1,168 percent. However, there was a de facto standstill in the wind turbines in 2020. The trend is that the expansion of photovoltaic energy is more stable than that of wind energy, according to a report from the Ministry of Climate, which annually measures how quickly the energy transition is progressing.
There are striking differences between the federal states. The expansion of wind power was almost exclusively limited to Lower Austria and Burgenland. In the field of photovoltaic energy, Lower and Upper Austria and Styria are frontrunners. The report also shows that many biomass heating systems are installed in Styria and Carinthia, but relatively few heat pumps are installed. In contrast, in Burgenland, three times as many heat pumps were installed in 2021 as biomass heating systems.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
