Germany has plans to avoid energy shortage: Chancellor Scholz

BERLIN (AA) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday assured the country that his government has plans to avoid energy shortage this winter, amid growing tensions with Russia.

Addressing lawmakers during a budget debate, Scholz said his coalition government started to look for alternatives to Russian gas, immediately after it came to power in December, foreseeing that Moscow may cut gas supplies to Europe.

“We’ve decided to build LNG terminals in the North Sea, we’ve expanded capacities of pipelines from Belgium and Netherlands, and now also from France, we started preparing ourselves at a time when nobody was even talking about this,” he said.

The chancellor dismissed criticism from the opposition parties, and argued that the government is doing everything to prevent an emergency situation this winter.

Scholz said the country’s gas storage facilities are already filled to around 85%, and one of the planned LNG terminals will be opened as early as January 2023.

He also noted that several coal-fired power plants are reactivated to save gas for the winter.

Schloz’s left-liberal coalition government introduced a package of energy-saving measures this month to decrease consumption by 20% and fill up gas storage facilities to 95% by Nov. 1.

Last week, Russia temporarily halted gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, and Moscow argued that the Western sanctions were hampering the maintenance work for turbines.

Before the war in Ukraine, Russia was supplying 55% of Germany’s natural gas, but the government has managed to reduce that reliance to 26% in June, according to official figures.

Berlin is hoping to reduce this figure to a maximum of 10% by 2024 summer.