It’s not too late for winter to start in Europe. Winters in major European countries require large amounts of fuel. But due to the effect of the Ukraine-Russia war, various complications have arisen with the supply of energy. Meanwhile, Germany has indicated that it may limit electricity exports to neighboring countries, including France, in the coming winter.
A Financial Times report quoted Hendrik Neumann, chief technical officer of Germany’s leading grid operator Ampion, as saying.
Analysts believe the system could be implemented as a ‘last resort’ to avoid power outages in Germany. According to Newman, power exports are likely to be off for a few hours at a time ‘rather than day-long’.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Newman said, “We anticipate a very stressful situation in the coming winter.” The current energy crisis in Germany and the wider EU is only partly caused by the situation around Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions war with Russia. Other factors include the shutdown of almost half of France’s nuclear power plants, problems with coal deliveries due to falling water levels, etc.
Analysts also believe the problem is being exacerbated by the distance of most wind power plants from its main customers and industrial plants.
Germany has been a major energy exporter for many years. For example, the country sold 17,400 gigawatt hours more electricity to other EU countries than it imported last year, according to data from the network regulator.
France and Austria are Germany’s main energy buyers. France imported 6,000 gigawatts of electricity from Germany between January and March this year. This number was five times higher than the same period last year, the report said.
Analysts say a decline in German electricity exports could exacerbate supply shortages in France. A report last month said France could cut off electricity supplies to Italy for two years due to problems with nuclear power plants. Although the country has denied these claims.
The French government is urging the country’s state utility EDF to restart 32 currently idle nuclear reactors as soon as possible. They went offline earlier this year due to corrosion problems and are still under maintenance.
EDF recently said its nuclear power output is set to fall to its lowest level in more than 30 years as power plants wear out.
(October 5)