The living room should stay warm

In shortage situations, uses that go beyond basic needs, such as heating swimming pools or saunas, would be prohibited. Graichen admitted that such bans cannot be monitored in practice. Nevertheless, the corona crisis, for example, has shown that a large number of people adhere to the rules even if compliance with them cannot be verified. Graichen referred to the ban on contact during the corona crisis.

The coalition factions support Graichen’s view. Protected customers should only be cut off from the supply when all other means have been exhausted. “The state has a special duty to protect private households, since the dependency on utility services has the greatest impact on private households,” said Nina Scheer, energy policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, to the Handelsblatt. All measures must be designed in such a way that “private households, other services of general interest and key industries are given priority,” she added. That corresponds to EU law.

Ingrid Nestle, spokeswoman for energy policy for the Greens in the Bundestag, takes a similar view: “Even technically, it would only be possible to take households off the grid with subsequent problems. So that’s not an option that I think makes sense,” Nestle told Handelsblatt. It is important to secure basic services. However, the space heating sector must also make a relevant contribution to savings in gas consumption. “This applies all the more in an emergency, when parts of the industry can no longer be supplied with gas. Without savings in heating, there would be a risk of large-scale outages in key supply chains,” said Nestle.

But the savings cannot be forced. The gas network needs a certain minimum pressure, so the gas supply cannot be reduced at will. Michael Kruse, energy policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, considers the debate on switching off private households to be a mistake. “My focus is on increasing import capacities to ensure that there is no gas shortage,” Kruse told Handelsblatt.

The discussion about a possible switch-off sequence unsettles consumers in Germany. There is currently no shortage. “Measures for energy efficiency, on the other hand, are worthwhile at all levels if only because of rising procurement prices,” said Kruse.

In Italy, the discussion is already further

In the past few days, it has been argued on various occasions that, in the event of supply bottlenecks, the burden of savings should not be shifted onto the economy alone. For example, Eon supervisory board chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley called for a “reversed” order to be considered in an emergency. The entire national economy and thus also people’s incomes depend on industry remaining able to work. Politicians should therefore consider switching off first with private individuals and then with industry. “Whereas vital infrastructure such as hospitals are of course still to be excluded from this,” Kley said.

The procedure proposed by Kley would violate applicable law. Because the protection of private households is not an act of mercy, but the core of the “gas emergency plan”. The shutdown sequence in the event of supply bottlenecks is regulated in the “Gas Emergency Plan for the Federal Republic of Germany” from 2019, which is based on an EU regulation from 2017.

At the European level, however, consideration has long been given to what contribution private consumers would have to make in the event of an energy emergency. Mario Draghi formulated the key question at a recent press conference as follows: “Do you prefer peace or the air conditioning running?”

The Italian prime minister failed to give a clear answer to his rhetorical question; Few issues are as sensitive as gas rationing. But the episode shows that instructions on how to save energy are no longer taboo in Europe. The EU Commission has set the goal of reducing dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of the year. This is hardly possible without reducing consumption, including private consumption.

Scenarios have also long been drawn up in the federal government. Officials are particularly concerned about the emergency of an embargo: What if Russia tries to blackmail Europe by stopping gas supplies? Last week, when the Russian energy company Gazprom stopped exporting gas to Poland and Bulgaria, it became clear that this is no longer just a mind game.

It is politically inconceivable that the federal government could order the closure of factories in an emergency without demanding a contribution from private households. When tens of thousands lose their jobs, the desire to heat your home to 25 degrees is difficult to justify. The problem is that energy-saving measures cannot in fact be controlled without establishing a snooping state. Everyone can regulate their heating themselves, the whole system is decentralized and analogue.

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Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency, recently suggested that companies in a bottleneck situation could bid for gas in an auction process. Economists support such considerations. At the beginning of May, the Federal Network Agency started a survey among the 2,500 largest gas consumers in Germany. She wants to get an idea of ​​which companies need to be supplied with gas for as long as possible and which don’t.

The gas emergency plan provides for a cascade of shutdowns:

• According to the plan, in the event of a gas shortage, all market-related opportunities are usedto reduce gas consumption. This means, for example, contractual regulations on shutdowns. For example, there are corporate customers who have agreed supply interruptions with their gas supplier under certain conditions. You can be rewarded for the interruption of the delivery. But the potential of such shutdowns is limited.
• If such flexibility options are not sufficient and short-term procurement of gas from neighboring countries is not possible, the gas network operators have to go one step further and Stop or shorten deliveries to “non-protected customers”.. This affects gas-fired power plants as long as their shutdown does not affect the power supply system as a whole.
• Should this measure not be sufficient, the Gas supply to systemically important gas power plants restricted. In this situation, companies must also expect their gas supply to be reduced or stopped.
• Only if none of this helps could it get cold in German apartments. Then it would be too “protected end consumers” affected. These are household customers, combined heat and power plants and “basic social services”. This means hospitals, fire brigades, public administration and educational institutions.

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