Energie: Wirtschaftsministerium will Gasreserve über Umlage finanzieren

The German Federal Ministry of Economy intends to fund a national gas reserve through a levy, according to a draft document obtained by the Trade Newspaper. This funding method was previously reported by news agency Reuters. The move comes despite earlier criticism from coalition parties Union and SPD.

The ministry has previously considered financing through the federal budget or a mixed model, with Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) exploring these options mid-year. The draft estimates annual costs from 247 to 308 million Euro over the first ten years. The reserve aims to provide extra gas volumes in extreme scenarios, such as sabotage or the loss of key infrastructure. The target volume is 24 Terawatt hours, enough to cover the outage of Germany's largest gas import infrastructure for 30 days.

The reserve would prevent industrial customers from being disconnected or private gas reserves being seized. It can only be used after declaring an emergency level by the Federal Network Agency, which then decides on its utilization.