What private citizens have to fear in the event of a gas emergency

If there is no more gas flowing from Russia, the supply of gas to private households has the highest priority in the gas emergency plan. But now it becomes clear: you would also have to do without in a problem situation.

In the event of an emergency situation in the gas supply, the federal government wants to be able to react with the help of regulations and thus supplement the gas emergency plan. The gas emergency plan was not based on a permanent gas shortage, said the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Patrick Graichen, on Tuesday at a municipal utility conference organized by the “Handelsblatt”.

Therefore, this has to be discussed again, but that does not mean that the order is different. “Protected customers remain protected customers. The question is, what is a protected customer entitled to.” This must be supplemented. “Yes, of course, households are supplied with heat, but there is no claim to 25 degrees, but only to 20 or 19.”

The Gas emergency plan regulates the gas supply in Germany in a crisis situation – in concrete terms: who still gets gas in case of doubt and who does not. You can read more about this here.

In an emergency, it would hit the industry first. It is one of the so-called unprotected customers and requires more than a third of the gas consumed in Germany.

The emergency plan knows three stages of escalation, which vary depending on the intervention of the state. At the end of March, Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) put the first stage of the emergency plan into effect.