Germany's energy regulator warns of winter gas shortage

BERLIN (AA) – Germany’s energy regulator on Thursday warned of a gas shortage this winter, and admitted that the government’s goal to reach 95% storage level by Nov. 1 is unattainable.

Bundesnetzagentur President Klaus Mueller told t-online news portal that gas consumption will significantly increase in the autumn, making it much more difficult to meet the targets set by the government.

“I don’t think that we’ll be able to meet the next storage targets as quickly as the first one. Reaching 85% by Oct. 1 is not impossible, but it is very ambitious, as we’ll be using gas for heating,” he said.

“In all scenarios, we are missing the target of 95% storage level by Nov. 1. We’ll hardly be able to do that,” he added.

The German government started to implement emergency plans last month to conserve gas for the winter, amid concerns that Russia could completely cut supplies to Europe.

Germany has around 23 billion cubic meters of gas storage capacity, and currently the total storage level is around 77%, according to the Bundesnetzagentur.​​​​​​​