Since the gas storage facilities have remained well filled even in winter, prices have fallen somewhat. From the point of view of the economy, however, they are still too high in an international comparison.
There are increasing signs of an easing of the situation in the gas supply in Germany. The high prices for household customers have fallen somewhat. The gas storage tanks are still well filled. The storage operators believe that they can be full to the brim again in autumn and thus before the start of the next heating period. The Federal Network Agency considers a gas shortage to be unlikely for the remainder of the current winter. Germany is now also more broadly positioned when it comes to imports: for the past seven weeks, liquefied natural gas (LNG) landed directly in Germany has been pumped into the long-distance gas pipelines.
Prices
On average, households currently have to pay less for natural gas than in the fourth quarter of the previous year. According to the energy industry association BDEW, the average gas price for household customers in an apartment building (annual consumption: 80,000 kilowatt hours) is currently 17.72 cents per kilowatt hour. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the average price was still 19.81 cents. For comparison: According to the Federal Network Agency, households paid an annual average of 6.34 cents per kilowatt hour for gas in 2019.
According to the comparison portal Verivox, the national average price for new customers is currently 11.94 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). “They have collapsed by 70 percent since autumn last year,” said Verivox energy expert Thorsten Storck. The first basic suppliers would also lower their prices in the coming weeks. The average offers for new customers from national suppliers are now below the price limits of the energy price brakes for both gas and electricity (gas: 12 cents/kWh, electricity: 40 cents/kWh). “If this development continues, households and the state will have to pay significantly less for energy this year than feared.”
But there are concerns in the economy. The general manager of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Martin Wansleben, said that the government’s energy price brakes averted an impending economic collapse. However, the prices are still too high in international comparison, for example to the USA.
memory and levels
The Ines storage association assumes that the storage facilities in Germany can be completely filled again at the beginning of the 2023/2024 heating period. Model calculations see the fill level at the end of September of the current year at 100 percent – regardless of the temperature profile. In mid-November 2022, as winter was coming to an end, the storage facilities had been 100 percent full since the end of August, despite Russian gas supply stops. On Wednesday morning, the level was 75.4 percent.
gas consumption
According to the Federal Network Agency, gas consumption in Germany in the fifth calendar week was 14.3 percent below the average consumption for the years 2018 to 2021. Adjusted for temperature, the value was 12 percent below the reference value, “and thus in the critical range”. The authority describes the situation as critical if less than 15 percent of gas is saved after temperature adjustment.
The network agency considers it unlikely that there will be a gas shortage this winter. “Nevertheless, the preparation for the winter of 2023/2024 remains a key challenge,” said the daily gas situation report on Thursday. “That’s why economical gas consumption remains important.”
LNG-Terminals
Since December 21, liquefied natural gas has also been pumped into long-distance gas pipelines in Germany. The quantities fed in at the new LNG terminals in Wilhelmshaven and Lubmin still vary greatly. The previous high was reached last Tuesday when 204 gigawatt hours of natural gas were registered. For comparison: Germany received 1,377 gigawatt hours of natural gas via pipelines from Norway alone on Tuesday. In the 5th calendar week at the end of January/beginning of February, an average of 3490 gigawatt hours of natural gas were consumed in Germany every day. One gigawatt hour of natural gas equals one million kilowatt hours.
So far, no gas has been fed in via the third terminal in Brunsbüttel. The energy group RWE, as the technical operator of the special gas landing ship there, assumes that the first gas quantities will be fed in at the end of February as part of the commissioning phase of the terminal. (dpa)