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Europe in energy crisis as Russia sanctions boomerang

Friday, 19 August 2022 1:54 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 19 August 2022 1:54 AM ]

A view shows pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany, July 21, 2022. (Reuters photo)

European countries are feeling the heat from the sanctions they have imposed on Russian energy imports over Moscow’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine.

Earlier this year, many states across the continent started to impose bans on vital Russian energy supplies in a bid to punish Moscow for its February-present “special military operation” in the ex-Soviet republic.

Reporting on Thursday, Reuters said, “several European governments had requested that back-up power be made available from idle coal plants or those due to close, due to lower gas flows from Russia...”

Britain's National Grid, it said, had entered deals with the homegrown Drax Group and France's EDF to extend the life of four coal-fired power units at two plants for the upcoming winter.

"These contracts are only intended to be used when all commercial options have been exhausted within the balancing mechanism," the UK's National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) said.

Kosovo's energy ministry has also resorted to guaranteeing energy imports from neighboring Albania. The former is already supplying 90 percent of its energy from coal.

Meanwhile, a survey showed that seven out of 10 Germans were already cutting down on their energy usage.

The study, which was conducted by the Berlin-headquartered Infratest dimap company, put the lower consumption rates down to “decades-high inflation” in Europe's largest economy.

Last month, however, Russian energy giant Gazprom said it would cut gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany to a fifth of capacity.

Gazprom said the curtailment was due to the fact that a turbine needed to operate Nord Stream 1 that had been sent to Canada for repairs, could not be returned because of sanctions.

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