Europe races to prepare for energy crunch this winter
PARIS/MADRID/BERLIN: European governments outlined new measures on Monday to cope with potential energy shortages this winter and raced to improve energy networks to share power, with Russian gas flows still running at severely reduced rates amid the Ukraine war.
Spain drew up plans that could force energy-intensive industries to shut at peak demand times, France said it was preparing to send gas to Germany from October, while Berlin said Europe’s powerhouse was still in talks on state aid for ailing utility Uniper.
German buyers briefly reserved capacity on Monday to receive Russian gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, once one of Europe’s major gas supply routes, for the first time since the line was shut three weeks ago. But they soon dropped the requests.
