Even full reserves can only cover 2-3 months of heating as usually they are used in conjunction with the continued gas supply.
So this is good news, but the crisis still remains.
A few positive bits here.
Temperature is helping keep consumption down in Germany. Overall there was a 15% drop in usage for first half of 2022, temperature adjusted it was a 10% drop. So not just cost (okay not that positive) and energy saving. Temperatures remained high in July/August.
German gas usage normally remains low in September, about the same as June levels. So there is another month of low usage is likely. They were adding about 1% every 3 days, so can expect to be over 90% by October. Cross fingers for a warm October.
In March 2022 German storage levels were lower than any time between 2016-2021, they are now currently higher than average.
Germany is open with its data and publishes weekly.
Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE: 10 of the 19 EU countries with gas storage facilities exceeded the target of 80%. These are Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Since not everyone has underground storage facilities for the reservation of “blue fuel”, President Zelensky proposed gas storage facilities for Ukraine to store gas for Europe.
This might be why Russia has decided to shut down NS1. When it was down in July, Germany had to take gas out of its reserves.
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Even full reserves can only cover 2-3 months of heating as usually they are used in conjunction with the continued gas supply.
So this is good news, but the crisis still remains.
A few positive bits here.
Temperature is helping keep consumption down in Germany. Overall there was a 15% drop in usage for first half of 2022, temperature adjusted it was a 10% drop. So not just cost (okay not that positive) and energy saving. Temperatures remained high in July/August.
German gas usage normally remains low in September, about the same as June levels. So there is another month of low usage is likely. They were adding about 1% every 3 days, so can expect to be over 90% by October. Cross fingers for a warm October.
In March 2022 German storage levels were lower than any time between 2016-2021, they are now currently higher than average.
Germany is open with its data and publishes weekly.
https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/EN/Areas/Energy/Companies/SecurityOfSupply/GasSupply/start.html
Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE: 10 of the 19 EU countries with gas storage facilities exceeded the target of 80%. These are Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Since not everyone has underground storage facilities for the reservation of “blue fuel”, President Zelensky proposed gas storage facilities for Ukraine to store gas for Europe.
This might be why Russia has decided to shut down NS1. When it was down in July, Germany had to take gas out of its reserves.