“We have decided that all gas storage facilities on Austrian territory must be connected to our network,” said Leonore Gewessler (Greens), Austria’s climate protection and energy minister, to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Monday edition). This decision is legally binding, the Minister continued.
connection this year
This storage facility was previously only connected to the German gas network and mainly supplied Bavaria’s households and industrial companies with gas. Haidach is one of the largest underground natural gas storage facilities in Europe. She expects that the first connection in Haidach to the domestic gas network will take place this year. “The storage tanks are our central safety buffer for the winter,” emphasized Gewessler. They are currently 50 percent full, she added.
More on the topic from the OÖN archive:
Situation “very tense”
For Gewessler, the gas supply situation is still “very tense”. However, it is “a positive development” that more gas is flowing from Russia again, said Gewessler after a gas infrastructure summit with Economics Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP), companies and social partners on Friday in Vienna.
Kocher and Gewessler pointed out that the summit is only a first step, further meetings in smaller groups are to follow. In any case, today’s discussion showed that Austria has a well-developed gas infrastructure. The maximum technical capacity of the transfer points through which non-Russian gas can reach Austria corresponds to Austria’s entire import requirements.
Video: The economy is pushing for quick decisions – the opposition is also putting pressure on: Has the gas summit on Friday made it clearer how Austria can get through the winter without Russian gas? Johannes Ruprecht (ZIB Economy) reports.
Source: Nachrichten
