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Bloomberg
Germany will step in if gas-storage operators fail to fill facilities sufficiently to comply with new requirements, as the government takes a tougher line to secure supplies for next winter.
Under the new rules — approved by the upper house of parliament on Friday and due to take effect from May 1 — operators must fill storage facilities to 90% capacity by November 1.
With gas storage 26% full now, the current daily additions of 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points mean it could take until late October to reach capacity, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Friday in the Bundesrat, where Germany’s 16 states are represented.
If sufficient progress isn’t made over the summer, the government will take action, he said.
“I would never have thought that an energy minister would have to say such things in the Bundesrat, but that’s the hard, brutal mathematics of energy policy†after decades of building up a reliance on Russia, Habeck said.
The new legislation is part of Berlin’s reaction to concerns about energy security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.