Experts for the winter – power cut? “We don’t expect”

“From the current perspective, the energy supply for this winter is certain.” This sentence by Alfons Haber, head of the energy authority E-Control, is reassuring. The main reason for the confidence is that the natural gas storages are very well filled, 80 percent earlier than expected.

But the situation in Europe is “closely monitored”. Less electricity from hydropower in the dry summer and many deactivated nuclear power plants in France pose challenges. “A kilowatt hour of electricity saved has never been more valuable than it is today,” emphasizes Haber.

In case of emergency, the electricity will be turned off
In the background there are of course crisis scenarios that are being worked out with the federal states. As Markus Achleitner, the provincial council of Upper Austria explained this week, temporary power cuts can even be planned in certain areas in the event of an emergency. Also in Styria, decision-makers are informed about these plans.

“I don’t expect that to happen,” Haber says. The boss of Energie-Steiermark, Martin Graf, is also confident for the winter – the focus is already on next year.

Network needs to be expanded
Both spoke at the Electrical Engineering Association conference in Graz. Its chairman Kari Kapsch calls for a strong expansion of the electricity grid, a sufficiently skilled workforce (“Without them we will not achieve the energy transition”) and at least temporarily a decoupling of electricity and gas prices. “The Austrian energy industry has already presented good concepts. It is now up to decision-makers to represent these proposals at European level and implement them as quickly as possible,” said Kapsch.