“Since the autumn, we have been seeing that gas consumption is consistently lower than in previous years. But now this trend is gaining momentum. In January it was a fall of less than five percent, now we are talking about almost a fifth decline. Since gas consumption in industry tends to relatively stable, it is clear that most of this difference is due to savings in heating, which are motivated by a jump in energy prices, “said Amper Meteo analyst Kamil Rajdl.
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Amper Meteo does not observe a similar trend of decreasing consumption for electricity, which also became more expensive, and its actual consumption, after adjusting for weather conditions, even increased by 0.6 percent in the first four months of this year. One simple explanation, according to the company, may be that reducing the temperature or heating time of water is easier than reducing the use of electricity appliances such as washing machines or refrigerators.
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“So we can look forward to the next extremely uncertain heating season with a certain optimism in the sense that Czechs can put on a sweatshirt and set the thermostat economically when it gets tough. The state should definitely support this willingness to save with an awareness campaign,” said Amper Group Director Jan Palaščák.
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“But that alone is not enough, especially if there are severe frosts. This summer needs to be used to the maximum for the insulation of public and private buildings, because the cheapest is the heat that we do not need to produce at all,” he added.
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Without Russian gas, there is a risk of an economic downturn
European countries are in a state of uncertainty due to Russian gas supplies. The Kremlin demands payments for gas in rubles. For example, the Russian gas company Gazprom stopped gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria last week. She justified her decision by saying that the local gas companies PGNiG and Bulgargaz refused to pay for gas in rubles, as Moscow demands.
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According to the Czech government, there are no signals that something similar is currently threatening the Czech Republic. However, according to the Confederation of Industry and Transport, a possible long-term outage would cause a clear economic downturn; according to the Food Chamber of the Czech Republic, it could also endanger food production. According to many companies, gas cannot be replaced by electricity, for example, in the short term.
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Questionnaire
Did you start saving on gas consumption due to high prices?
I’m waiting for the investigation to make the gas more expensive.
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A total of 1998 readers voted.
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