European governments are hoping to save energy ahead of winter by encouraging their populations to take colder showers and unplug their wifi in an attempt to fill storage reserves, but such actions are unlikely to make a big difference in the UK.
Germany, Austria and France are finding ways to reduce consumption before the peak winter heating season, including limiting street lighting for shops and setting a recommended temperature of 26C for air conditioning.
In mainland Europe, the push for collective effort to reduce energy use comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to send oil and gas prices soaring, sparking a cost of living crisis.
The EU told member states last week that they needed to cut gas usage by 15 per cent in the next eight months, as the bloc attempts to build up storage reserves ahead of winter, amid fears Russia could turn off the gas supply at short notice to punish European leaders for taking action over Ukraine.
However, such energy measures would be unlikely to make a difference in the UK, which relies on Russia for just four per cent of its gas supply, compared to 39 per cent in the EU. In addition, the UK has a relatively small amount of storage, compared to other large economies in Europe. The maximum capacity is 1.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) while Germany has the largest at 26bcm.
“If all sites were withdrawing at their maximum rate they could be emptied in weeks as supposed to months,” said Thomas Rodgers, European gas analyst at the Independent Chemical and Energy Market Intelligence (ICIS).
However, Mr Rodgers said looking at gas storage in isolation “does not do justice as to how the UK meets demand in winter”.
He pointed to the two pipelines with mainland Europe “which effectively allows us to push excess gas from Britain to European storage in the summer and then bring those volumes back in winter if needed”.
He continued: “The UK also has the benefit of three LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals – Germany has none.
“The UK also still has significant but diminished volumes from the North Sea and has multiple ways to import gas from Norway.”
UK storage could also increase this winter with the potential reopening of a gas storage site off England’s east coast.
British Gas owner Centrica said it is in discussions with the Government and is carrying out the necessary engineering work to enable its Rough site in the North Sea to reopen. The Rough site previously provided about 70 per cent of Britain’s gas storage capacity for 30 years before it closed in 2017 after the government refused to subsidise costly repairs.
Here are some of the ways Europeans are being asked to observe so-called energy sobriety:
**Germany**
German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said he has “significantly” reduced his shower time and encouraged others to do the same to save energy.
“I’ve never showered for five minutes in my life,” he told Der Spiegel.
Under the German government’s energy-saving measures, heated swimming pools will be banned in private homes this winter and there will be restrictions on heating.
Vonovia, one of Germany’s largest housing providers which owns around 490,000 apartments in the country, will reduce heating for many of its tenants between 11pm and 6am to 17C, the company said this month.
The reduced heating schedule will be rolled out over the coming months and will be fully in place by the start of autumn, with an aim to save up to eight per cent of heating costs.
Cities such as Nuremberg and Augsburg have stopped illuminating historic buildings and are dimming street lights at night.
The mayor of Oldenburg, Jürgen Krogmann, delivered a 30-point energy saving plan, which includes switching off hot water in public buildings during the summer holidays which would mean colder showers in places such as sports facilities.
“Better a cold shower in summer than a cold apartment in winter,” he told Spiegel.
**France**
The French government urged its people to switch off lights, unplug the wifi and lower air conditioning, The Local in France reported.
“Every bit of energy that we are able to collectively save now is energy that we will be sure of being able to use in autumn or winter,” said government spokesman Olivier Veran.
“When you go away for the weekend or on holiday, unplug as many plugs as possible because if not they (appliances) continue to consume energy. You should unplug your wifi in particular.”
Additional measures in France include a ban on illuminated adverts at night expect at train stations and airports, while shops will be prohibited from having its doors open while air conditioning or heating is on.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, French minister for energy transition, told Le Journal du Dimanche that the measures will help businesses reduce their energy bills by nearly 20 per cent.
She said businesses face being fined if they do not comply – €750 (£627) for open doors and €1,500 (£1,254) for illuminated signs.
Supermarket chains have agreed to turn off all lights at stores that are closed and dimming them in certain areas, according to The Local.
Ms Pannier-Runacher said large retailers should go a step further and limit heating to 19C in winter and 26C in summer.
**Austria**
Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler said the country was on track to reach its target of topping its natural gas storage to 80 per cent of capacity by winter.
Appearing on Austrian news channel Zeit im Bild on Monday, she said people should still to try to reduce their energy consumption by making small changes, such as boiling water with the lid on the pan and turning down central heating.
In its top tips for saving energy, Austria’s largest electricity provider, Verbund, advises consumers to only iron clothing that is absolutely necessary, saying “creases help save electricity”.
According to the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, several local authorities under the country’s Association of Cities are considering turning off the heating in some classrooms and teaching children in a large area of a school such as a sports hall, with some pupils attending remotely from home.
They are also questioning whether “warm water is really needed to wash hands in public buildings”, Der Standard reported.
Stephan Pernkopf, Deputy Governor of Lower Austria, has called for a statewide energy curfew on both public and private consumption.
Speaking to Austria’s national broadcasting service Orf, Mr Pernkopf, who is responsible for energy in the country as a state councillor, said he did not understand why car parks and shop windows should be illuminated at night.
**Spain**
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez asked people to save energy by giving up ties.
Appearing at a news conference in an open-necked white shirt, Mr Sanchez said he dressed less formally to curb utility use, although did not elaborate on how going tieless conserved energy.
He told ministers and public officials that if it is not necessary “don’t use a tie”.
He added: “I’d like you to note that I am not wearing a tie. That means that we can all make savings from an energy point of view.”
He said the government would present a new energy saving plan next week, but he gave no details.
He said the plan was designed to cut utility bills and to reduce energy dependency on “the aggressor, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin”.
We might not be at risk of gas being shut off, but surely these measures would help the UK by reducing demand?
>Imagine if everyone did it. 7 sets of T-shirts and shorts is pretty much a full load = 2kWh\week = 100kWh/year * 50m adults = 5TWh which is about 1.5% of the UK’s total electricity consumption, just to wash pyjamas because people are too fussy to wear them more than once.
This is how I’m reading this.
The UK is a bloke with a massive bag of fish and chips and a pie. Also he knows an America guy that puts a Barbie on everyday for his mates but hates randomers coming over.
Meanwhile there is Germany next to him with a single schnitzel and a load of money trying to buy more food but it’s late and all the shops are shut.
The outcome of this is “oh the UK is fine we can just eat what we want and go to bed”.
It just seems like a complete lack of empathy. Maybe we can be less of a bunch of fat bastards and sell them our pie. Aren’t we meant to be mates after all? We can even sell them the whole thing and go get a Barbie off our American mate.
This just seems like a bit of a “fuck you I got mine”.
How would reducing gas usages in the UK and exporting electric and gas to the continent not be a good thing for Europe?
I read yesterday that a black out in Germany would take 7 days at least to ‘reset’ and bring the grid back up. Also there would be a cascade effect across other countries.
We are not immune to this, since we often import electricity from the continent to shore up our own under powered grid during peak demand. That’s not going to be an option in this scenario. And I fear a complete UK grid failure will not fare much better than a European one.
Sorry, I have no link to this information, but I’m sure a search would reveal such info.
With domestic EU production and imports the EU should be able to scrape through the winter.
The UK imports about half its gas, mainly from Norway but also LNG. That means it is susceptible to international gas prices, a very strong pound would help lessen the impact of price rises. One way to make a currency stronger is high interest rates, unfortunately for the UK the BoE is hell bent on proping-up the housing market.
Isn’t the collective 15% just a way for the rest of the EU to cut consumption enough to bail Germany out of the hole they dug for themselves?
I can’t imagine that Germany would be so keen to cut 15% of its usage (and hence have a negative impact on their economy) if it was Greece who were stuck being so reliant on Russian energy.
Well how about we abandon wasteful energy expenditure.
* There’s no reason for shops or their signage to be lit up when people aren’t in them and they’re not open.
* Turn off street lighting on a night (note, not evenings when people and traffic are using them).
* Legally require all boilers to be installed with either a modulating thermostat or weather compensation to reduce flow temperatures and reduce output hot water to 65°C.
* Require all shops with any kind of heating or cooling running to have their doors closed, air curtains still lose heat
* Ban the sale of all low efficiency disposable domestic appliances. I’m looking at you resistive tumble driers
* Mandate all new build properties of any form have solar panels and heat pumps, more insulation and high efficiency windows and doors.
Sad how across europe the responsibility and suffering is put on households. Industry conssumes enormous amounts of power, and no suggestion of maybe restricting that. Better tto turn off the heating in peoples homes in winter than have any downtime in business?
Please don’t turn off your WiFi router. It hardly uses any power anyway, and the exchange will think you have a line fault and reduce your speed. You’ll also find that your day is interrupted with devices downloading updates that would have normally happened overnight.
Stuff like this has been happening for a while already. Before I left the UK, around 9 years ago, my town started turning off all the street lights at 10:30. It certainly wasn’t my primary reason for leaving but it was a good indicator of things to come, services being reduced and taxes rising.
Isn’t the reason why most of Europe is “going dark” now, is because the EU were quick to jump into bed with the Russians, giving Putin pretty much all the power over their gas supplies as they turned off their own natural resources in order to meet their “Green targets” and “foster diplomatic relations” with a man who was always clearly going to be a major headache down the line?
And also when sane people were trying to warn the EU leaders about how dangerous and stupid it is to give so much control of their gas supplies to that despotic nutcase, they were literally laughed at out of the room for even suggestion such a thing?
And Panama davie also fecked investment by civilians being good citizens in PV solar oooh & collapsed the wind farm set up in the isle of wight? Cuuuunt
13 comments
European governments are hoping to save energy ahead of winter by encouraging their populations to take colder showers and unplug their wifi in an attempt to fill storage reserves, but such actions are unlikely to make a big difference in the UK.
Germany, Austria and France are finding ways to reduce consumption before the peak winter heating season, including limiting street lighting for shops and setting a recommended temperature of 26C for air conditioning.
In mainland Europe, the push for collective effort to reduce energy use comes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to send oil and gas prices soaring, sparking a cost of living crisis.
The EU told member states last week that they needed to cut gas usage by 15 per cent in the next eight months, as the bloc attempts to build up storage reserves ahead of winter, amid fears Russia could turn off the gas supply at short notice to punish European leaders for taking action over Ukraine.
However, such energy measures would be unlikely to make a difference in the UK, which relies on Russia for just four per cent of its gas supply, compared to 39 per cent in the EU. In addition, the UK has a relatively small amount of storage, compared to other large economies in Europe. The maximum capacity is 1.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) while Germany has the largest at 26bcm.
“If all sites were withdrawing at their maximum rate they could be emptied in weeks as supposed to months,” said Thomas Rodgers, European gas analyst at the Independent Chemical and Energy Market Intelligence (ICIS).
However, Mr Rodgers said looking at gas storage in isolation “does not do justice as to how the UK meets demand in winter”.
He pointed to the two pipelines with mainland Europe “which effectively allows us to push excess gas from Britain to European storage in the summer and then bring those volumes back in winter if needed”.
He continued: “The UK also has the benefit of three LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals – Germany has none.
“The UK also still has significant but diminished volumes from the North Sea and has multiple ways to import gas from Norway.”
UK storage could also increase this winter with the potential reopening of a gas storage site off England’s east coast.
British Gas owner Centrica said it is in discussions with the Government and is carrying out the necessary engineering work to enable its Rough site in the North Sea to reopen. The Rough site previously provided about 70 per cent of Britain’s gas storage capacity for 30 years before it closed in 2017 after the government refused to subsidise costly repairs.
Here are some of the ways Europeans are being asked to observe so-called energy sobriety:
**Germany**
German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said he has “significantly” reduced his shower time and encouraged others to do the same to save energy.
“I’ve never showered for five minutes in my life,” he told Der Spiegel.
Under the German government’s energy-saving measures, heated swimming pools will be banned in private homes this winter and there will be restrictions on heating.
Vonovia, one of Germany’s largest housing providers which owns around 490,000 apartments in the country, will reduce heating for many of its tenants between 11pm and 6am to 17C, the company said this month.
The reduced heating schedule will be rolled out over the coming months and will be fully in place by the start of autumn, with an aim to save up to eight per cent of heating costs.
Cities such as Nuremberg and Augsburg have stopped illuminating historic buildings and are dimming street lights at night.
The mayor of Oldenburg, Jürgen Krogmann, delivered a 30-point energy saving plan, which includes switching off hot water in public buildings during the summer holidays which would mean colder showers in places such as sports facilities.
“Better a cold shower in summer than a cold apartment in winter,” he told Spiegel.
**France**
The French government urged its people to switch off lights, unplug the wifi and lower air conditioning, The Local in France reported.
“Every bit of energy that we are able to collectively save now is energy that we will be sure of being able to use in autumn or winter,” said government spokesman Olivier Veran.
“When you go away for the weekend or on holiday, unplug as many plugs as possible because if not they (appliances) continue to consume energy. You should unplug your wifi in particular.”
Additional measures in France include a ban on illuminated adverts at night expect at train stations and airports, while shops will be prohibited from having its doors open while air conditioning or heating is on.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, French minister for energy transition, told Le Journal du Dimanche that the measures will help businesses reduce their energy bills by nearly 20 per cent.
She said businesses face being fined if they do not comply – €750 (£627) for open doors and €1,500 (£1,254) for illuminated signs.
Supermarket chains have agreed to turn off all lights at stores that are closed and dimming them in certain areas, according to The Local.
Ms Pannier-Runacher said large retailers should go a step further and limit heating to 19C in winter and 26C in summer.
**Austria**
Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler said the country was on track to reach its target of topping its natural gas storage to 80 per cent of capacity by winter.
Appearing on Austrian news channel Zeit im Bild on Monday, she said people should still to try to reduce their energy consumption by making small changes, such as boiling water with the lid on the pan and turning down central heating.
In its top tips for saving energy, Austria’s largest electricity provider, Verbund, advises consumers to only iron clothing that is absolutely necessary, saying “creases help save electricity”.
According to the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, several local authorities under the country’s Association of Cities are considering turning off the heating in some classrooms and teaching children in a large area of a school such as a sports hall, with some pupils attending remotely from home.
They are also questioning whether “warm water is really needed to wash hands in public buildings”, Der Standard reported.
Stephan Pernkopf, Deputy Governor of Lower Austria, has called for a statewide energy curfew on both public and private consumption.
Speaking to Austria’s national broadcasting service Orf, Mr Pernkopf, who is responsible for energy in the country as a state councillor, said he did not understand why car parks and shop windows should be illuminated at night.
**Spain**
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez asked people to save energy by giving up ties.
Appearing at a news conference in an open-necked white shirt, Mr Sanchez said he dressed less formally to curb utility use, although did not elaborate on how going tieless conserved energy.
He told ministers and public officials that if it is not necessary “don’t use a tie”.
He added: “I’d like you to note that I am not wearing a tie. That means that we can all make savings from an energy point of view.”
He said the government would present a new energy saving plan next week, but he gave no details.
He said the plan was designed to cut utility bills and to reduce energy dependency on “the aggressor, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin”.
We might not be at risk of gas being shut off, but surely these measures would help the UK by reducing demand?
I’ll never forget the time I learned t[here are people who wash their pyjamas every day](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/td25s8/comment/i0gzmfk/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
​
>Imagine if everyone did it. 7 sets of T-shirts and shorts is pretty much a full load = 2kWh\week = 100kWh/year * 50m adults = 5TWh which is about 1.5% of the UK’s total electricity consumption, just to wash pyjamas because people are too fussy to wear them more than once.
This is how I’m reading this.
The UK is a bloke with a massive bag of fish and chips and a pie. Also he knows an America guy that puts a Barbie on everyday for his mates but hates randomers coming over.
Meanwhile there is Germany next to him with a single schnitzel and a load of money trying to buy more food but it’s late and all the shops are shut.
The outcome of this is “oh the UK is fine we can just eat what we want and go to bed”.
It just seems like a complete lack of empathy. Maybe we can be less of a bunch of fat bastards and sell them our pie. Aren’t we meant to be mates after all? We can even sell them the whole thing and go get a Barbie off our American mate.
This just seems like a bit of a “fuck you I got mine”.
How would reducing gas usages in the UK and exporting electric and gas to the continent not be a good thing for Europe?
I read yesterday that a black out in Germany would take 7 days at least to ‘reset’ and bring the grid back up. Also there would be a cascade effect across other countries.
We are not immune to this, since we often import electricity from the continent to shore up our own under powered grid during peak demand. That’s not going to be an option in this scenario. And I fear a complete UK grid failure will not fare much better than a European one.
Sorry, I have no link to this information, but I’m sure a search would reveal such info.
The EU has about 100 days gas storage capacity.
https://www.intellinews.com/how-many-days-of-gas-consumption-are-in-europe-s-storage-tanks-250065/
With domestic EU production and imports the EU should be able to scrape through the winter.
The UK imports about half its gas, mainly from Norway but also LNG. That means it is susceptible to international gas prices, a very strong pound would help lessen the impact of price rises. One way to make a currency stronger is high interest rates, unfortunately for the UK the BoE is hell bent on proping-up the housing market.
Isn’t the collective 15% just a way for the rest of the EU to cut consumption enough to bail Germany out of the hole they dug for themselves?
I can’t imagine that Germany would be so keen to cut 15% of its usage (and hence have a negative impact on their economy) if it was Greece who were stuck being so reliant on Russian energy.
Well how about we abandon wasteful energy expenditure.
* There’s no reason for shops or their signage to be lit up when people aren’t in them and they’re not open.
* Turn off street lighting on a night (note, not evenings when people and traffic are using them).
* Legally require all boilers to be installed with either a modulating thermostat or weather compensation to reduce flow temperatures and reduce output hot water to 65°C.
* Require all shops with any kind of heating or cooling running to have their doors closed, air curtains still lose heat
* Ban the sale of all low efficiency disposable domestic appliances. I’m looking at you resistive tumble driers
* Mandate all new build properties of any form have solar panels and heat pumps, more insulation and high efficiency windows and doors.
Sad how across europe the responsibility and suffering is put on households. Industry conssumes enormous amounts of power, and no suggestion of maybe restricting that. Better tto turn off the heating in peoples homes in winter than have any downtime in business?
Please don’t turn off your WiFi router. It hardly uses any power anyway, and the exchange will think you have a line fault and reduce your speed. You’ll also find that your day is interrupted with devices downloading updates that would have normally happened overnight.
Stuff like this has been happening for a while already. Before I left the UK, around 9 years ago, my town started turning off all the street lights at 10:30. It certainly wasn’t my primary reason for leaving but it was a good indicator of things to come, services being reduced and taxes rising.
Isn’t the reason why most of Europe is “going dark” now, is because the EU were quick to jump into bed with the Russians, giving Putin pretty much all the power over their gas supplies as they turned off their own natural resources in order to meet their “Green targets” and “foster diplomatic relations” with a man who was always clearly going to be a major headache down the line?
And also when sane people were trying to warn the EU leaders about how dangerous and stupid it is to give so much control of their gas supplies to that despotic nutcase, they were literally laughed at out of the room for even suggestion such a thing?
And Panama davie also fecked investment by civilians being good citizens in PV solar oooh & collapsed the wind farm set up in the isle of wight? Cuuuunt