BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 13. EU’s storage is full at over 65% of its capacity, an EU official told Trend.
“As Commissioner Simson recently explained, the REPowerEU plan has guided our response to the hardships and global market disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As she said: “Together, we have managed to get rid of our dependency on Russian fossil fuels. We have diversified away from Russia, to reliable partners. The European people and companies have cut down almost 20% of their energy consumption. And most importantly, for the long term view, we have massively invested in renewables and in our energy independence.” But our work is far from over. There remain uncertainties on the energy markets, so there is no room for complacency and our preparations for next winter have already started,” said the official.
The EU representative noted that the gas storage filling target for next winter is set at 90% for the 1 of November.
“Compared with last year, this year we are starting from a higher base. Nearing the end of May 2023 now, the EU’s storage is full at over 65% of its capacity, relative to the 38% average at the same period in recent years. To make sure we reach that target and keep reducing our dependency on Russia, we have also prolonged the coordinated reduction of gas demand, so that Member States keep reducing their monthly gas consumption by 15%. Last year, we overachieved that target by reducing demand between August and March by almost 18%,” said the official.
The EU representative noted that Europe is also keeping up its work on supplies diversification, notably through the work of the EU Energy Platform.
“For the first time ever, we have aggregated gas demand at the EU level and through our mechanism AggregateEU we have attracted bids from international suppliers. Clearly, our work on a faster deployment of renewable energy and more energy efficiency also continues. The European Parliament and the Member States recently provisionally agreed on stronger rules and we hope to see those enacted as soon as possible.”
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn