One of the last large consumers in Europe gives up Russian gas – Bloomberg

The Wien Energie GmbH company, which provides two million people with energy in Vienna and its suburbs, has stated that in 2025 it will give up Russian fuel for the first time in several decades.

Source: Bloomberg

Details: The company sourced 10 terawatt-hours of alternatives, equivalent to about 12% of national consumption, from North Africa, the North Sea and other global liquefied natural gas suppliers.

"Because of Russia’s war of aggression, independence from Russian gas is critical for security of supply. All households, commercial customers and power plants will be running on non-Russian gas in 2025," said Vienna’s finance chief Peter Hanke at a press conference on 13 September.

Even though Wien Energie will keep procuring gas through the Central European Gas Hub, in the future it will require traders to certify that the fuel used in Vienna isn’t from Russia.

The company will use certificates of origin that it said are forgery-proof and based on blockchain technology.

Michael Strebl, Chief Executive Officer of the company, stated that the utility also pledged not to raise prices on end users, even as the alternative energy sources cost slightly more than Russian gas.

Background:

• The supply of gas to the EU in 2025 might contain covertly mixed flows from Russia, which will give Russia a workaround when the validity of the current transit agreement ends.
• Europe makes efforts to no longer depend on Russian gas, but several Eastern European countries will keep receiving it through a gas pipeline which goes through Ukraine. The validity of this agreement ends this year, potentially cutting as much as 15 billion cubic metres of gas supplies for such countries as Austria and Slovakia.

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