Before everyone loses their heads: while this is definitely serious, it doesn’t have all that many immediate repercussions on ordinary people. For example:
* This second level allows the government to take measures to curb gas consumption in the summer (e.g. reactivate coal-fired power plants to reduce gas used for electricity – [see this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/vhcjhe/coal_plants/)).
* While the second level also allows gas companies to charge higher prices to consumers (to reflect higher prices on the wholesale market), based on media reports this will *not* yet be activated (but it could be in the future).
* The second level allows more flexibility in the gas supply – e.g. using gas reserves to stabilise the supply over the short term, etc.
* There is no gas rationing at this level – that only comes into effect should the third level of a “gas emergency” be declared. At that point, the authorities can start to cut off certain consumers to protect more critical consumers. The plan is to start with reducing gas supply to non-critical industry (although what is “non-critical” can be surprisingly difficult to assess, as supply chains are complex, and a seemingly non-critical item could be a prerequisite for producing a more critical one), then critical industry, then individual homes, and finally critical infrastructure (e.g. hospitals). How far the rationing will have to go depends on too many factors – at the moment it’s looking like some non-critical industry may have to throttle back, but no more, but that could change as circumstances change.
The first phase of the gas emergency plan was activated back in March. That created things like crisis management team at the federal government level, and instituted regular reporting of metrics like reservoir levels.
Unrelated to that, does anyone know of a good comparison article for energy-efficient electric heating options?
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Winter is coming
Before everyone loses their heads: while this is definitely serious, it doesn’t have all that many immediate repercussions on ordinary people. For example:
* This second level allows the government to take measures to curb gas consumption in the summer (e.g. reactivate coal-fired power plants to reduce gas used for electricity – [see this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/vhcjhe/coal_plants/)).
* While the second level also allows gas companies to charge higher prices to consumers (to reflect higher prices on the wholesale market), based on media reports this will *not* yet be activated (but it could be in the future).
* The second level allows more flexibility in the gas supply – e.g. using gas reserves to stabilise the supply over the short term, etc.
* There is no gas rationing at this level – that only comes into effect should the third level of a “gas emergency” be declared. At that point, the authorities can start to cut off certain consumers to protect more critical consumers. The plan is to start with reducing gas supply to non-critical industry (although what is “non-critical” can be surprisingly difficult to assess, as supply chains are complex, and a seemingly non-critical item could be a prerequisite for producing a more critical one), then critical industry, then individual homes, and finally critical infrastructure (e.g. hospitals). How far the rationing will have to go depends on too many factors – at the moment it’s looking like some non-critical industry may have to throttle back, but no more, but that could change as circumstances change.
The first phase of the gas emergency plan was activated back in March. That created things like crisis management team at the federal government level, and instituted regular reporting of metrics like reservoir levels.
Unrelated to that, does anyone know of a good comparison article for energy-efficient electric heating options?