The gas supply until spring will be tight.

Appeals for austerity have not yet really reached consumers, so that Germany can get by without Russian deliveries.

The Federal Network Agency is already preparing for the event of a shortage.

Here are the most important questions and answers about how this works and who then has to do without first.

Helmut Buender

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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Jan Hauser

Editor in Business.

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Does Germany get enough gas in winter?

The anxious look goes to the thermometer.

Half of all apartments are heated with gas, as are many offices and industrial buildings.

According to the industry association Zukunft Gas, consumption in summer averages 1 to 1.5 terawatt hours a day, in winter it usually rises to 3 to 4, and in very cold weather to 6 terawatt hours a day.

That much gas no longer arrives after the Russian supplies were cut off.

"On cold winter days, we could be missing twenty percent of the amount," says association leader Timm Kehler of the FAZ

Can this be compensated for via the memory?

The reservoirs are about 89 percent full, and the target is 95 percent by the beginning of November.

The federal government expects that full storage will last for two to three average winter months.

It could get tight during long periods of cold, says Kehler.

Emptying the stores completely would be risky.

The focus is already on the winter after next.

Because without gas from Russia, which helped to fill the storage tanks until the summer, it will be a great challenge to build up new reserves in the coming year.

The bottleneck would only be shifted backwards.

Are the high prices already dampening gas consumption?

Not much of this can be seen in private households.

According to the Federal Network Agency, gas outflows have increased more than expected in the past few days, which have been noticeably cooler.

That could change if more customers find their new advance payments in their mailboxes, Kehler suspects.

On the other hand, gas consumption in industry has been declining significantly for several months.

Companies have switched to oil or electricity, but entire plants or factories are also being shut down.

In August, industrial gas consumption was a good fifth below the average for previous years.

The Kiel economist Sonja Peterson from the Institute for the World Economy warns: "Not enough gas is being saved." The EU has set a very sensible goal of voluntarily saving 15 percent on gas.

Although the industry in Germany has achieved this,

Do private individuals have to worry that their heaters will stay cold?

no

However, the network agency could make specifications to reduce the "comfort consumption" for saunas or swimming pools, says President Klaus Müller.

But the supply of households with heating energy is protected.

Businesses are also protected if they do not consume more than 1.5 million kilowatt hours a year.

This helps bakeries, supermarkets, farms, schools and kindergartens.

What happens when gas runs out and the government declares an emergency?