Factbox: German local utilities' plans as natural gas gets scarce
03/08/2022 13:08
By Riham Alkousaa
BERLIN, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Local utilities in Germany are
taking various measures to replace scarce gas with other energy
sources in the coming winter amid concerns that already reduced
Russian gas imports may run
dry. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2ZF2OB urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2ZF3FS urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2ZF2NN
There are around 900 such companies, called Stadtwerke,
which distribute two-thirds of all gas among many other
activities in power, water, heat, waste and broadband.
The companies have been purchasing gas at very high prices
which they expect to pass on to consumers through planned gas
levies from October.
They shared the following status reports in response to an
enquiry by Reuters.
Stadtwerke Munich (SWM)
Germany's biggest local utility has postponed switching from
coal to gas at one of its combined heat and power plants and
reactivated previously-shut oil burners at two heating plants.
It is also investing in district heating in the city.
"Together with the expansion of renewable heat generation,
the dependence on fossil energies and difficult supply
situations should also be reduced in the heating sector," it
said.
Mainova MNVG.F
The Frankfurt city utility said it was currently depending
on just a small amount of gas to generate heat and electricity,
for which it uses a waste plant and two hard coal-fired blocks,
whose capacity can not be raised significantly.
Major customers have been contacted about possible power
reductions and switch-off scenarios.
Stadtwerke Leipzig has extended a heat supply contract to a
lignite coal-fired power station.
"If the worst comes to the worst, we can also operate our
gas and steam turbine system, which produces district heating
and electricity using combined heat and power generation, with
heating oil", said a spokesperson.
Rheinenergie, the energy supplier to the city of Cologne,
said its gas and steam turbine systems can only be operated with
oil to a limited extent and for a short time. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ZE0K8
"We have safety reserves of oil in order to guarantee the
district heating supply in the event of technical faults," said
a spokesperson.
GASAG EONGn.DE VATN.UL ENGIE.PA , the gas supplier to the
capital city of Berlin with a total of 700,000 customers in gas
and power, says it cannot switch to other fuels.
Stadtwerke Flensburg in northern Germany has been replacing
natural gas with hard coal for a number of months. "From today's
perspective, this will not change in the next few months," a
spokesperson said.
The company said it had extended the life of two coal-fired
plants that had been due to be shut down by the end of the year
and had procured and stored more coal feed-stock.
It can also generate heat with electricity and light fuel
oil but is not planning to switch its plants to heating oil, it
added.
Stadtwerke Tuebingen in southwest Germany is examining the
possibility of a partial switch to heating oil to save on
natural gas, having increased its oil storage to the maximum
capacity.
A switch to oil is not technically possible in all plants.
Biomass or light heating oil would be used as a first step in
case of a supply emergency.
"In a further stage, industrial customers would have to be
separated from gas supply in instalments," said a spokesperson,
adding the company has informed major customers about the
procedure.
($1 = 0.9825 euros)
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FACTBOX-Europe's action in case Russian gas supply stops
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(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa,
additional reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
((Riham.Alkousaa@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @RihamKousa;))