In the event of a rapid total failure, Austria could get through the summer, but the sources had to be diversified quickly, Urbantschitsch said in the ORF “ZiB2” on Monday evening. In order to print the prices, European solutions are needed.
Video: Energy prices are rising, as is the pressure on politicians. Wolfgang Urbantschitsch, CEO of E-Control, is in ZIB2.
If no more Russian gas were to reach Austria, the goal of filling the storage facilities to 80 percent by winter would be “difficult to achieve”. According to recent information, around 30,000 GWh of gas would still have to be stored. According to Urbantschitsch, the storage status is currently 48 percent.
Even without the flow of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline through the Baltic Sea from Russia to north-east Germany, which is currently stopped for maintenance, it could be possible to increase the storage level slightly. At the moment, however, nobody knows whether Moscow will turn on the gas tap again after the routine maintenance work because of the Russian war in Ukraine. According to Urbantschitsch, if Russia turns on Nord Stream again, the target of 80 percent can be reached quite easily.
Video: Energy crisis causes tensions in the ÖVP
Urbantschitsch called for European solutions in order to keep consumer prices within a manageable range. The price caps in Spain and Portugal, for example, are only possible because their power grid is “relatively uncoupled from the European one”.
The energy regulatory authority is skeptical about an electricity price cap in Austria. “If Austria were to cap the price of electricity itself in the form of an intervention in wholesale prices, this would have the effect that Austrian taxpayers would pay for something that other customers in other countries would also benefit from,” Urbantschitsch said earlier. Even with the high gas price, a common European solution is needed. AK and E-Control agree on this, it was said before in “ZiB1”.
Source: Nachrichten
