Fighting to keep gas flowing
Industries must prove why they should be exempt from consumption cuts in case of emergency
Greek industries will fight hard to be exempted from the natural gas consumption surcharge that will be triggered in case of a European Union-wide emergency.
Industries must submit a detailed application to the national natural gas system operator DESFA, arguing for a priority exemption from the obligatory 15% cut in natural gas use in case of an emergency.
The European Union, faced with the prospect of a Russian cutoff in its natural gas exports later in the year, especially during the winter, has devised the cutoff strategy.
In Greece the Regulatory Authority for Energy is responsible for implementing these emergency measures.
The EU set some categories of protected consumers that will not follow the mandated cuts: households, hospitals, care facilities, schools, airports, buildings that house public agencies and other social services. After pressure from individual members, including Greece, the Commission allowed individual members to enact priority exemptions favoring large gas consumers who provide goods and services deemed critical and of strategic importance to the functioning of society.
The crucial sectors provided for are health, security, the environment, defense, refineries and foods. Sectors and industries that are part of cross-border supply chains and provide those crucial goods and services can also be exempted.
Industries to be exempted include makers of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, the chemical industry, for products used in food and the health sector, textiles, for products used in medical care and for defense purposes
Other criteria to be used in granting exemptions is an industry’s ability, or lack thereof, to substitute another fuel for natural gas and the effects of a forced cessation of activity to the industrial installations.
The EU and RAE will favorably consider cases where a sudden cut in the supply of natural gas could result in irreversible damage to installations. This would include parts of the pharmaceuticals industry, especially bio drugs, some mechanical equipment, textiles (the finishing part) and most activities involving chemical reactions, such as fertilizers, glass, steel, aluminum and refineries.
