On July 26 this year, at an extraordinary meeting of the European Union council of energy ministers, ministers of member states agreed on energy security measures to be taken before the new winter season.
At the meeting, Member States agreed on a regulation on the reduction of natural gas demand, which provides that Member States voluntarily reduce their natural gas consumption by at least 5% compared to their average consumption in the past five years, between 1 August this year and 31 March 2023. The purpose of this Regulation is to save natural gas to prepare for potential gas supply disruptions from Russia, which continuously uses energy supply as a weapon.
Taking into account that Latvia’s natural gas consumption in Q2 this year, it has already fallen by 31% compared to the previous period, Latvia has already achieved the savings provided for in the Regulation and no additional measures will have to be implemented. At the same time, Latvia has created natural gas strategic emergency stocks of 2 TWh in the Incukalns underground gas storage facility.
The political agreement reached at the meeting is a strategic step for joint action of the European Union to substantially reduce consumption of gas originating in Russia. At the same time, it is also an important step to accelerate the replacement of energy sources in the region with more friendly and sustainable solutions,” the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Economics Andris Čuda emphasises.
At the same time, the introduction of an EU solidarity mechanism was discussed at the meeting, which provides for a 15% reduction in natural gas consumption to be mandatory for all Member States if a Union alert is triggered. A Union alert can be announced if at least five Member States have requested it.
It is important to use other existing tools, such as the solidarity agreements, in the implementation of the solidarity mechanism. At this point, only a few Member States, including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, have concluded solidarity agreements on gas supplies in the event of a crisis,” the Parliamentary Secretary of ME indicates.
Given that Latvia and the other Baltic States have a special situation in relation to the operation of electricity networks, the Regulation provides for an exceptional case for the Baltic States without applying the natural gas consumption reduction target in the case of an emergency desynchronisation from the BRELL (Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) contract. In the event of emergency desynchronisation, the Baltic States’ electricity grid will have to work in “island mode” and demand for natural gas for electricity generation will increase significantly, well above projected consumption.
Responsible authorities of Member States are expected to be responsible for controlling and monitoring the implementation of measures to reduce gas consumption by submitting reports to the EC.