E-Control assures:

Even a total Russian gas outage would be manageable

(Bild: AFP)

Even in the event of a total loss of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine, Austria would survive a winter - even a particularly cold one, assures E-Control. The gas storage facilities would still be just under a fifth full. With average temperatures and stable Russian supplies, the storage facilities would be two thirds full at the end of the heating season.

Since the Russian attack on Ukraine, replacing Russian gas has been a high priority. At EU level, around a third of gas consumption in 2021 still came from Russian pipelines, said E-Control Executive Director Alfons Haber on Thursday. In 2023, this figure was around eight percent.

"Gas market completely turned upside down"
The gas market has been "completely turned upside down" in recent years. The gas flows in the Austrian transport network and in the EU have changed significantly and sustainably since February 2022. Austria has largely lost its role as a transit country and is dependent on transit through Germany and Italy to secure supplies in the event of a shortfall in Russian gas supplies.

Of the approximately 77 terawatt hours (TWh) of natural gas in domestic storage, a good third belongs to non-Austrian customers. A quarter of the storage volume (19.46 TWh) is accounted for by the strategic gas reserve.

Power supply secured, but the picture is changing dramatically
Austria's electricity supply is also currently secure, E-Control states in its annual monitoring report. However, the power plant landscape will look completely different in 2030 than it does today: "Photovoltaics and wind power plants will account for around 50 percent, while run-of-river and storage power plants will account for a further third. Thermal power plants, which will continue to exist, will account for around 15 percent. Together, there will be around 41 gigawatts (2021 around 24 GW) of installed capacity," Haber explains the plans.

Head of E-Control Alfons Haber

(Bild: APA/E-CONTROL/FOTO WILKE/GEORG WILKE)

According to E-Control, power plant capacity has increased significantly over the past two years. In 2022, a net capacity of 1.256 gigawatts was added. Photovoltaics (PV) accounted for one gigawatt of the additions, wind power increased by 200 megawatts (MW), followed by run-of-river power plants with around 130 MW, storage power plants with around 50 MW and biomass with around 20 MW. At the same time, around 170 MW of fossil thermal power plants were decommissioned.

Consumption down slightly, mainly thanks to households
Electricity consumption fell by 1.8% to 63.3 TWh in 2022 - with the decline mainly attributable to households. Including the electricity that consumers cover with their own PV systems, consumption amounted to 66 TWh.