Gas, electricity and fuel are very expensive this winter. Is enough arriving in Germany? How expensive is energy at the moment and can we achieve the savings target? All data at a glance.
How expensive are gas, electricity and fuel? Where do they come from and how much is currently being used? How full are the German gas storage facilities? We answer that in this regularly updated overview based on current data on generation, consumption and prices.
gas consumption
Twenty percent gas must be saved in winter 2022/23 to avoid a gas emergency. In 2022, the savings target was missed. Calculated from August, however, Germany is currently saving a little more than 20 percent of gas.
The table below shows how much gas has been saved week by week since August. Most recently, the relative and absolute savings fell again somewhat.
The following diagrams show how much gas is currently consumed in Germany. First, the overall consumption: The savings target of 20 percent compared to the average consumption between 2018 and 2021, which is aimed at by politicians, is shown in red. Currently, the target is just missed.
The gas consumption is relatively dependent on the temperature. The Federal Network Agency therefore calculates a temperature-adjusted consumption. It is in the green area when at least 25 percent less gas is consumed than was usual in previous years at similar temperatures. The yellow area shows a saving of 15 to 25 percent, in the jargon of the Federal Network Agency the situation is then “tense”. In the red area there is a saving of less than 15 percent or even additional consumption. Consumption is currently in the yellow area.
You can output the consumption for major customers from industry as well as households and businesses separately. The following chart shows the respective consumption, again in comparison to the consumption range between 2018 and 2021. The demand of small consumers is strongly dependent on the temperature. Gas consumption by households and businesses has recently risen slightly above the savings target of 20 percent.
So far, gas consumption in industry in 2022 and 2023 has mostly been at the lower end of the consumption range between 2018 and 2021 or below. After consumption rose significantly after the turn of the year, it is now falling again. Industry uses about twice as much gas in winter as it does in summer, and households and businesses use up to ten times as much.
Gas flows and storage
Gas has not flowed from Russia to Germany since the end of August. The following chart shows the other countries from which Germany nets gas imports. Imports from Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands remain quite stable.
Relevant quantities of gas were only exported to the Czech Republic and Austria in 2022. Gas has only rarely flowed to the Czech Republic recently. Germany currently exports very little net gas.
It is important to store as much gas as possible before the winter. The target of 40 percent by February 1 was clearly achieved. Around 169 terawatt hours are currently stored, far more than in previous years.
Between 2018 and 2021, an average of between 15 and 30 terawatt hours (TWh) per week were consumed in winter. If nothing is imported at all, the current memory level is sufficient for consumption of around 5.5 to 11 weeks.
In order to have enough gas available, Germany must not import significantly less than 2 gigawatt hours of gas per day net for a long period of time. The following chart shows the difference between imports and exports. Germany currently imports well over 2 GWh net of gas per day.
Strom
Electricity is also becoming significantly more expensive – and is also a focus when it comes to security of supply. Germany constantly exchanges electricity with neighboring countries in the European grid and does not always generate exactly as much electricity as is consumed in the country itself. The following graph shows when more was produced than consumed and when it was the other way around for the last three days.
How high the proportion of imported electricity is has to do with the energy sources: wind and solar power depend on the weather, time of day and distance from the sun, for example, and are available at different locations.
The following chart shows the electricity mix in Germany for the past three days. Solar and wind power in particular make an important contribution depending on the time of day. Electricity also comes from coal and gas generation.
The Baden-Württemberg electricity mix, shown by the data from the south-west network operator Transnet BW, looks very different. Wind power hardly plays a role here. Solar energy as well as energy from pumped and hydro storage power plants are relevant. Gas is hardly ever converted into electricity, but hard coal very well.
In the following, the various sources of renewable energy are summed up and their share is not only considered at a single point in time, but over a whole week. For example, last year green electricity usually made up between 40 and 60 percent of the German electricity mix. There were stronger fluctuations around the turn of the year.
Prices
Energy costs have risen sharply in 2022 and are weighing on consumers. An important regular cost item, at least for motorists, is fuel prices. These have recently tended to fall again. We visualize the development for the urban area of Stuttgart as an example. In the first weeks of February, the price of diesel tended to fall. Most recently, it rose again slightly to EUR 1.74. Gasoline prices are also trending upwards.
Heating oil prices have also changed regularly and very unevenly since the beginning of the year. Shortly after the start of the Ukraine war, prices skyrocketed, and since the summer they have fluctuated more from place to place. Nationwide, the price of oil has recently fallen significantly, so that it is again approaching the values before the start of the Ukraine war.
Prices also vary greatly in the south-west. As an example, we show the prices of the last five weeks for six major cities in Baden-Württemberg since January. 100 liters of standard heating oil recently cost between 103 and 107 euros (with a standard delivery of 3000 liters).
This post and the data shown here are updated regularly.