It will be a long and “difficult” winter for many Europeans. “We are well aware of this” says European Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen, who does not hide the difficulties caused by the skyrocketing cost of gas. “In any given year, unfortunately, almost fifty million Europeans are unable to adequately heat their homes due to high energy prices in Europe. This year, the number will probably be even higher,” explains Jorgensen, “so we must do everything we can to alleviate these difficulties.”
Meanwhile, yesterday the price of gas exceeded 100 euros per megawatt hour, the highest value since 2022 and approximately triple compared to the beginning of the year.
The Energy Commissioner invited member countries to “do everything in your power to abandon fossil fuels as quickly as possible. This means focusing more on renewable energy and energy efficiency, promoting electrification, replacing gas or fuel oil boilers with electric heat pumps, and switching from vehicles with combustion engines to electric ones. These are all measures that can be supported and which, already in the short term, are capable of making a concrete difference”.
O’Brien: “Towards significant increases”
Irish Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien predicted that “at current wholesale prices, we could see further significant increases.” For O’Brien, “from a supply point of view, our reserves are strong and our supplies are robust. The big challenge for families and businesses is costs; an issue we are all fully aware of in all Member States. However, supply in Europe remains solid and we are not experiencing any problems; our reserves are also strong. The focus must be on costs and prices.”
Precisely for this reason, the minister added on the sidelines of the EU council, “it is of fundamental importance to accelerate work on electrification. If this crisis, which adds to the one in Ukraine, teaches us anything, it is that excessive dependence on imported fossil fuels constitutes one of the greatest risks for our energy security, as well as for our competitiveness as a Union. We are making significant progress, both at the level of individual member states and as a bloc, in electrification and in the acceleration towards renewable energy, but we must do more more”.