German consumers are swarming to shops to buy electric heaters as fears of a true gas shortage caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine rise, but experts warn this could pose problems for power supply security. The majority of heating and hot water systems across German households still rely largely on gas and a large-scale switch to heating with electricity could threaten the national grid’s stability, power network experts warned. Researchers also found that a sudden mass-use of heaters in Germany could spill over to create problems in neighbouring countries, according to CLEW.
Russia’s gas supplies to Germany have plummeted since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, leaving German citizens concerned with how they will heat their homes over the next winter in the case of severe gas shortages. Authorities have repeatedly said that private households are among the most protected consumers whose supply would be prioritised in a shortage, but this has done little to assuage fears among parts of the country. As a consequence, electric-powered fan heaters are experiencing a boom, which experts say could endanger power grid stability in the coming winter.
A national blackout is unlikely, but the heaters could still lead to regional issues, Andreas Jahn, senior associate of Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) and expert in Germany’s electricity grid, told CLEW.
“It is like a flash mob,” he says. “If they all decide to plug in at once, the system will fail in a second.” That could cause small-scale blackouts, in neighbourhoods for example, says Jahn. He said that there are not currently mechanisms in place to deal with the surge in demand of electricity.
Between January and June this year in Germany, around 600,000 electric heaters were sold, which is an increase of around 35 percent compared to the amount sold in the same period in 2021, market research company GfK told Der Tagesspiegel. Since June that demand might have accelerated even more: while there are no new statistics on recent weeks of the demand status, a Hornbach DIY chain told Frankfurter Allgemeine demand was heading towards being up 500 percent in July compared to in 2021.