In order to overcome the fall in Russian gas deliveries, the European plan provides that each country reduces its gas consumption by at least 15 % compared to the average of the last five years over the same period.
Le Monde with AFP
Limit the heating of certain buildings, postpone the closure of nuclear power plants, encourage companies to reduce their needs … Brussels proposed on Wednesday July 20 a plan aimed at reducing European gas demand to overcome the fall in deliveries Russians.
In order to prepare for winter, the European Commission has prepared an arsenal of measures which will allow the twenty -seven to face a possible interruption of Russian supplies – which constituted until last year 40 % of their imports. “Russia uses gas as a weapon. In the event of total interruption, Europe will have to be ready,” said the president of the European executive, Ursula von der Leyen.
This plan must still be discussed by the member states. He plans that each country will have to “do everything possible” to reduce, between August 2022 and March 2023, its gas consumption by at least 15 % compared to the average of the last five years over the same period. States will have to detail by the end of September their roadmap to get there.
The Nord Stream gas pipeline, by which a third of the Russian gas deliveries in the EU pass, has been closed since July 11 for routine maintenance that is due to end on Thursday. But Europeans fear that Moscow does not reopen the tap. The previous weeks, Russia had already saved its routes by 60 % via Nord Stream.
In the event of “substantial risk of serious shortage or exceptionally high request”, and if voluntary efforts were not enough, Brussels would like to be able to activate an alert mechanism – after consultation of States – which would make it possible to set “objectives Binding demand reduction “for twenty-seven. The European executive had already presented in the spring a strategy to get rid of Russian hydrocarbons, by imposing on states a minimum filling of gas reserves, by diversifying suppliers and developing renewable energies.
Difficult winter
Despite the swelling of imports from Norway, Azerbaijan or Algeria, and a tripling since March of American liquefied natural gas routes, Europeans fear a difficult winter. M von der Leyen has estimated possible to reduce the annual consumption of gas in the EU of around 45 billion cubic meters. For comparison, Russia had provided some 153 billion cubic meters in 2020 for twenty-seven. Some 11 billion cubic meters would, in particular, be a drop in heating or air conditioning of buildings. Brussels asks, among other things, states to adopt binding measures to limit the heating and air conditioning of public and commercial buildings, “where it is technically feasible”.
Brussels encourages the use of alternative sources for urban heating, heat pumps in individuals, and recommends communication campaigns to encourage households to lower the thermostat by a degree this winter – which would save “Up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year”, according to the commission.
However, “protected customers” (households, social services, hospitals, SMEs, whose supply is guaranteed) represent less than 37 % of total gas consumption. The Commission therefore targets electricity production and industry. “Priority must be given to renewable energies, but the transition to coal, oil or nuclear may be necessary temporarily,” recognizes Brussels, which asks countries wishing to renounce the civil atom to postpone their closure projects nuclear power plants.
For industrialists, the text recalls the existence of alternative solutions (transition to biomass or biomethane, electrification of certain machines …) and proposes to establish “auction systems” which would offer companies “compensations “In exchange for a consumption reduction. Even for sectors with few room for maneuver to do without gas, like chemistry, which uses it as raw material, it would be “much less expensive” to reduce their demand gradually rather than waiting to undergo a brutal breakup , estimates the commission.