Reassurance in Upper Austria

“We can easily get through the winter with gas”

The gas pipelines are currently not bringing Russian gas directly to Austria, but it will flow again via detours

(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart .)

Russia has turned off the gas pipelines to Austria. This was not expected until January 2025, but suppliers have been preparing for this for some time. In Upper Austria, Energie AG and Linz AG are trying to reassure gas and electricity customers and promise security of supply and price stability.

The gas freeze from Russia had been expected, but prices on the exchange rose immediately. The approximately 80,000 households in Upper Austria that are still heated with gas do not need to worry during the current heating period. This is what the major suppliers Energie AG and Linz AG promise in response to an inquiry from "Krone". "Of course, we have already made provisions. Our storage facilities are 95 percent full," says Karin Strobl from Energie AG and promises that neither the prices for gas nor electricity will be increased and that security of supply is guaranteed.

Prices also expected to fall again
At Linz AG, CEO Erich Haider says: "We have made provisions until the summer. The storage facilities are 98.3 percent full." Linz also promises to maintain the agreed prices throughout the heating season, and nobody will have to freeze. Prices are expected to jump in the short and medium term, but not as badly as at the beginning of the Ukraine war, and then fall. "We don't have to buy now, we can wait," says Haider.