Europe faces "long, hard winter," warns IEA head
Europe faces a "long, hard winter" amid heightened uncertainty about Russian gas supply, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said in a post on July 18, outlining five steps European leaders could take to prepare for the coming heating season.
First, governments can introduce auction platforms to incentivise reductions in industrial gas use. Industrial consumers could offer up part of their contracted gas supply as demand reduction products for compensation. Such models are already being developed in Germany and have been proposed in the Netherlands.
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Second, gas use in the power sector should be minimised by temporarily increasing coal and oil-fired power generation, while increasing the deployment of low-carbon sources where possible, including nuclear energy.
Third, gas and electricity operators should increase their cooperation, including on peak-shaving mechanisms, and fourth cooling standards and controls should be lowered to reduce household power demand. Lastly, Birol calls for emergency planning to be harmonised across the EU at the national and European level, including measures for supply curtailments and solidarity mechanisms.
"If these types of measures are not implemented now, Europe will be in an extremely vulnerable position and could well face much more drastic cuts and curtailments later on," Birol warned.
The gas crisis in Europe started to emerge last summer, as a result of years of underinvestment in supply and a sharp rebound in demand following the end of pandemic lockdowns. But Russian curtailments in gas deliveries since last autumn have exacerbated the situation, resulting in record-high gas prices this summer.