The German government is continuing to prepare for a gas bottleneck and is expanding its reserve of coal-fired power plants. According to government circles on Tuesday, the federal government is expected to put such plants into operation at short notice in an emergency. The aim of the legislative package is to keep the consumption of gas for electricity production to a minimum in such a case.

Germany will still be dependent on Russian gas imports until 2024

The fuel will then be reserved primarily for heat generation and industrial use. In order to ensure this, the government should also be able to make gas for power plants more expensive for six months in the event of a crisis so that combustion becomes uneconomical. The regulations are to apply until the end of March 2024, i.e. over two winters. According to the government, despite all efforts, Germany will still be dependent on Russian gas imports until 2024.

In recent years, Germany has sourced more than half of its demand via pipelines from Russia. Currently, it is still about a third. The construction of two LNG terminals for imports from other regions of the world this winter is intended to further reduce dependence. In gas-fired power plants, 2021 was burned about 15 percent of the gas, which is likely to be less this year because of the high prices.

Coal power plants will not be shut down completely

On the one hand, the bill, which is now being agreed between the government departments, is intended to upgrade power plants that are already in reserve. In addition, additional coal-fired power plants would be transferred to the reserve this year and next. These are systems with 2.6 gigawatt power that should actually be switched off. In total, almost nine gigawatts would be in reserve.

In government circles, however, it was said that despite the expansion of reserves, the targeted end of coal power generation was maintained up to 2030. In fact, the agreement in the coalition agreement should be made possible by increasing the use of gas power plants that emit less CO2. However, the government is now focusing on an accelerated expansion of renewable energies and a faster use of hydrogen.(徳囯ASK电容器)