Gas grid phaseout should be announced ten years in advance, says German consumer group
Der Spiegel / Clean Energy Wire
The decommissioning of local gas grids in German cities should be flagged ten years in advance to allow households to prepare accordingly and avoid the purchase of new gas-based heating systems, consumer protection association vzbv has said. Customers would then know “that a new gas heating system will no longer pay off,” a spokesperson for vzbv said, according to news magazine Der Spiegel. A spokesperson for the affiliated Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Wurttemberg added that “more and more consumers will switch to climate-friendly energy sources,” including district heating or heat pumps, “and bid farewell to the gas grid.”
Local utilities in Germany are beginning to prepare the end of gas-fired heating, with the city of Mannheim in November being one of the first major municipalities to announce a gas phase-out in heating by 2035. According to Der Spiegel, this has elicited angry reactions from many citizens who recently purchased a new gas heating system.
In a list of priorities for consumers published ahead of next February’s snap elections, the vzbv said that “cost traps” for households should be avoided by providing sufficient lead time when phasing out gas grids. The operation of these grids becomes more costly for remaining customers as more households opt out and switch to other heating technologies. The vzbv also called for regulating prices in district heating and urged the installation of an independent evaluation body to ensure transparency in the growing market.
About half of all households in Germany used gas for heating 2023, but a law on ensuring a climate-friendly transition in the heating sector agreed last year is preparing the phase out of the fossil fuel in favour of technologies based on renewable power. Besides district heating or heat pumps, this could also include biomass, hydrogen or geothermal energy in some cases.
