The price of gas reached a level on Monday not seen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In particular, the new “maintenance” shutdowns of the Russian Nordstream gas pipeline.
This is enough to worry European countries even more, especially in the face of next winter with the risk of a cut that looms especially for the states most dependent on Russian gas, such as Germany.
For several months now, the European Union has been preparing. On the one hand, by diversifying its supply sources and activating levers so that populations reduce their consumption. Each country (except Hungary) has thus committed to reduce its gas consumption by 15% during the period from August 2022 to March 2022 compared to the previous four years. However, this goal is not binding. And if the United Kingdom has left the European Union, it is still connected to the European electricity grid and is also preparing for a tense winter.
• Germany: mainly local measures
If 55% of its gas supply came from Russia before the Ukraine war, Germany has not yet drawn up any specific national measures on consumption reduction, aside from calls for sobriety. This means, for example, using energy efficient shower heads or washing clothes at low temperatures.
A package of measures is expected at the federal level, including the end of the heating of private pools.
However, several large cities have already implemented measures. In Hannover it is no longer possible to take a hot shower in swimming pools and sports halls. The city’s fountains are turned off and the large public buildings are no longer illuminated at night. The heating will be limited to 20 degrees this winter.
200 monuments and public buildings in Berlin are now dark, such as the Victory Column and the Charlottenburg Palace. Enough to save the energy of 1,400 projectors, that is, an annual saving of 40,000 euros.
The city of Munich even distributes money to the best students. It promises a bonus of 50 euros to households that reduce their electricity or gas consumption by 10%, and 100 euros to those that reduce it by 20%.
• United Kingdom: reductions to avoid cuts
The idea: to encourage consumers to favor off-peak hours to use energy-intensive appliances such as washing machines or dishwashers, in exchange for discounts that are currently being studied.
Thus, British households could receive up to 6 pounds (or 7 euros) per kilowatt-hour used in off-peak hours, running their appliances less between 5 and 8 p.m. The device could be activated at the end of October.
In Britain, consumer electricity prices should have more than doubled in a year by next January. The average energy bill per household could then reach 6,000 pounds a year (more than 7,000 euros) according to some estimates, or almost 20% of the disposable income of households in the country.
• Spain, Italy, Greece: rage for air conditioning
High users of air conditioners during the summer, these countries have announced temperature limits to reduce electricity consumption: 27 degrees in Spain and Greece (which aims to reduce the energy consumed by 10% this year), 25 degrees in Italy.
In Spain, a law now obliges air-conditioned premises open to the public to keep their doors closed. The decree also provides that the lights in shop windows and the lighting in public buildings be turned off after 10 p.m.
Same limitations for heating: 19 degrees maximum but only in shops, cultural places and transport in Spain, and public buildings in Italy and Greece.
This country has also launched a program of 640 million euros to modernize public infrastructure: replacement of windows, heating or cooling systems in buildings.
• The Netherlands: shorter showers
The Dutch are advised not to spend more than five minutes in the shower and to set the heating to a maximum of 19 degrees.
• Ireland, Belgium: the politics of small gestures
There are no specific measures in these countries, but there are information campaigns to encourage consumers to adopt the correct gestures, such as in Belgium, giving a series of practical tips on how to consume energy intelligently.
Examples: put the heating on night mode an hour before, raise the temperature of the freezer, turn off household appliances that consume energy, use public transport and/or bicycle…
In Ireland, motorists are encouraged to drive between 65 and 80 km/h or to control the amount of water to put in the kettle to avoid any waste.
On the heating side, we recommend not exceeding 20 degrees in the main rooms and 15/18 degrees in the bedrooms. The authorities point out that a drop of 3 degrees in heating allows a saving of 21% of the consumption of a home.
• France: asks for sobriety, application and coercive measures
Russia accounts for 20% of our gas consumption, Emmanuel Macron recalled on July 14. If France is now diversifying its sources of supply, it is also at the level of the citizen that it is now necessary to act through a sobriety plan which expires in September.
The government hopes to reduce the country’s energy consumption by 10% in the next two years.
On the side of sobriety, the government asks the French to apply the correct gestures: turn off devices in standby mode, choose hours of less activity to wash their clothes, cover pots with water to boil…
It also wants to relaunch the EcoWatt application developed by RTE (the electricity grid administrator) which should allow the French to know in real time the level of electricity consumption region by region (thanks to three colors: green, orange and red which means very tense situation), to be alerted in case of risk of cuts, in order to adapt their consumption.
In the event of a risk of outage (region in red), a notification will be sent by SMS and email to the French affected, “to encourage each citizen to reduce or change their consumption,” explains RTE.
On the coercive measures side, plans to ban illuminated advertisements between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. According to the Agency for Ecological Transition (Ademe), a 2-square-meter digital LCD advertising screen annually consumes as much electricity as a home (for lighting and appliances).
Businesses that have air conditioning must now keep their doors closed. According to the government, this “absurd” behavior of leaving the doors open leads to 20% more consumption. In case of non-compliance with this measure, companies are exposed to a fine of 750 euros.
Source: BFM TV
