Bildnummer: 51039670 Datum: 28.02.2005 Copyright: imago/Hans-Günther Oed Rauch zieht aus den Schornsteinen von Wohnhäusern , Landschaft; 2005, Haus, Häuser, rauchende, rauchen, qualmende, qualmen, Qualm, Wohnhaus, Wohnhäuser, Schornstein, Schornsteine, heizen; , quer, Kbdig, Totale, Deutschland, , , / Jahreszeit, Winter, Emission, Schadstoffemission

The federal government fears problems with the coal supply for power plants and the oil supply in eastern Germany in the autumn and winter. “Due to the very limited inland waterway transport, the built-up coal stocks could be reduced quickly,” says the “Energy Supply Situation Report” of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which was available to the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

“The additional warehouses that were and are still being procured in southern Germany will most likely not be filled until winter…”, it says with a view to Baden-Württemberg. The main reason is the low water level of the Rhine, which does not allow larger coal transports by ship.

A significant improvement is not to be expected here. The congested rail network also makes delivery by train difficult.

The power plant operator EnBW is faced with a challenge: either coal is used sparingly by running the systems up and down as required, according to the situation report. However, this greatly increases the risk of power plant failures. On the other hand, regular use leads to significant additional consumption.

The federal government passed a regulation on Wednesday according to which coal and oil transports should be given priority by rail. Nevertheless, there is little confidence in the paper dated Tuesday: Due to a wide variety of factors such as construction sites, bottlenecks in vehicles and incidents, there are delays and bottlenecks in rail freight transport, it is said.

“Planned work by Deutsche Bahn in the Rhine Valley could further aggravate the situation…” Hard coal comes mainly along the Rhine line from North Sea ports such as Rotterdam.

While the government is critical of the coal supply situation in the south-west, the oil supply is in the north-east. The Schwedt and Leuna refineries will have to stop using Russian pipeline oil from the end of the year because of the embargo.

This would then at least lead to higher prices: “EU embargo and German exit from pipeline oil with a corresponding lead time by the end of the year would be manageable – albeit with the acceptance of price increases and possible restrictions,” it says.

Around 75 percent of the Leuna refinery can be supplied with oil via the Polish port of Gdansk. This is contractually secured. Schwedt could also achieve an output of around 75 percent if the pipeline from the port of Rostock was “upgraded immediately”.

Schwedt supplies large parts of eastern Germany and also areas of western Poland with fuel – including Berlin Airport. Considerations to additionally supply the region with refinery products from West Germany are again met with rail bottlenecks: