Thanks to the mild temperatures, the gas storage facilities in Germany are filling up again. Today, the European gas storage association GIE reported an increase in filling levels for the seventh time in a row.
According to this, the memory was 88.84 percent full the day before yesterday – an increase of 0.22 percentage points compared to the previous day. For the Federal Network Agency, however, this is no reason to sound the all-clear. The situation remains tense.
According to the supervisory authority, gas consumption in the 51st calendar week was 23.8 percent below the average consumption of the last four years and 37.4 percent below the previous week. But this is largely due to the milder temperatures. Adjusted for temperature, consumption in the 50th and 51st calendar week was only 12.4 percent below the reference value for the last four years and was therefore in the critical range. The agency reiterated its savings target of at least 20 percent to avoid a national gas shortage this winter.
New Year’s resolution: save energy
The message seems to have fallen on the ears of many Germans. In a recent survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the real estate service provider Ista, a contemporary newcomer emerged among the usual New Year’s resolutions such as living healthier, losing weight or quitting smoking: save more energy.
According to the representative survey, almost half of the people in Germany (43 percent) want to use less energy in the household in the new year. A third of those questioned want to use “slightly less” energy, a good one in ten even “much less”.
The main thing is to save money, as stated by 64 percent of those surveyed. Above all, one in five wants to make a contribution with their savings efforts so that Germany can get through the energy crisis in good shape. For a good one in ten, environmental and climate protection are the decisive arguments. Three percent stated that they mainly want to save energy because their friends and acquaintances do the same.
More than two-thirds (69 percent) of those who start the new year with an energy-saving resolution say they want to heat less in all rooms in the future. A good half want to turn down the heating in the room they are not currently in.
Other popular savings include turning off electronic devices rather than leaving them on standby (50 percent) and using less hot water when doing the dishes or washing hands (47 percent). However, for most people there are also limits to how far they want to go when it comes to saving energy: only six percent of those who start the new year with a resolution to save energy want to take a cold shower.
