Early warning stage of the gas emergency plan declared

Source: Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, March 30, 2022

Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck today proclaimed the early warning stage of the gas emergency plan. In the context of the conference of energy ministers taking place today, Minister of State Hubert Aiwanger requires the federal government to "already replace gas wherever possible with other energy sources to counter a possible gas shortage situation early on." 

In addition to renewable energies, electricity production should be carried out primarily by means of coal-fired power plants, as far as technically possible, in order to save gas. "For this, the framework conditions must be set and coal stocks must be replenished to the maximum. We need six to twelve months' supply of coal, which we can and must buy worldwide. Electricity and oil must be targeted cheaper, so that consumption shifts there," said Minister of State Hubert Aiwanger. 

Further measures that are quickly effective must be taken. Thus, biogas plants must be de-bureaucratized and fully utilized, and set-aside in agriculture must be lifted at least temporarily. After all, this is where energy crops can be grown to generate electricity, for example. Furthermore, urgent precautions must be taken to enable trucks to switch immediately to operation without AdBlue in an emergency, since gas is also needed for AdBlue production. End users can also reduce gas consumption for heating by switching to electricity-powered end appliances as far as possible. For this, too, electricity must become cheaper through tax reductions. Thus we ensure that all system-relevant enterprises can be supplied further with gas, with which there are no replacement solutions. 

With the early warning stage of the emergency plan gas a crisis team is activated, which consists of Federal Ministry of Economics, Federal Network Agency, representatives of the market area responsible gas, the transmission system operators and federations as well as Land representatives. An employee from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs is represented there for all of southern Germany, including Baden-Württemberg. The BMWK assumes that, in addition to Germany, Italy and Lithuania, other EU member states will also declare the early warning stage. The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs has already set up its own gas supply crisis team with representatives of energy companies, trade associations and industry several weeks ago.

Read the full press release.