Hanover turns off hot water with eye to winter gas shortages

Graham Charles Lear
4 min readJul 29, 2022

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The German city of Hanover has laid out measures to cut gas dependency on Russia ahead of the winter period. Heating will be limited in public buildings, with no hot water and no lighting in public landmarks.

Officials in the central German city of Hanover have announced plans to cut energy consumption by 15% ahead of the expected gas shortage this winter.

The city has become the first major European city to switch off hot water in public buildings, with no warm water in washrooms and no hot showers at swimming pools and sports halls.

Hanover joins other German communities in seeking to limit consumption as the threat of a full or partial shutoff of gas from Russia looms over sanctions and the war in Ukraine.

What are the measures?

The city will limit the period in which public buildings are heated between October and March, with the maximum temperature generally set at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).

In storage areas and on public transport, that maximum will be between 10 and 15 degrees. Heating, more generally, will be switched off or lowered in areas where it is not strictly necessary.

Sports halls and gyms would also be asked to limit heating to 15 degrees, with no more warm water when showering.

There will be no more outdoor lighting of public buildings, museums and sights, with wider efforts to limit permanent lighting inside buildings. Public fountains will also be shut down.

Why is Hanover doing this?

City mayor Belit Onay said Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, was seeking to prepare as best it could for an unpredictable situation.

“The aim is to reduce our energy consumption by 15 per cent. This is a reaction to the impending gas shortage, which poses a major challenge for the municipalities — especially for a large city like Hanover,” Onay explained. “Every kilowatt hour saved protects the gas storage.”

Finance and regulatory department head Axel von der Ohe said it was important to prepare and save energy in advance of an expected bottleneck in supplies.

“Right now we are on alert,” he said. “Gas is scarce, but demand can still be covered. In this situation, it is important for us to save energy as a precaution even before an emergency situation arises.”

What’s happening elsewhere?

In the Bavarian city of Augsburg, the council had lowered the temperature in its public pools and is also seeking to limit heating in public buildings

The German Association of Towns and Municipalities says scaling back street lighting is also one of the measures that local authorities are considering.

Officials in the city of Mainz and Weimar have already introduced such measures, switching off lights in certain areas and at specific times.

Berlin’s Senate announced on Wednesday that it would turn down heating in some 200 public buildings and that a number of landmarks would no longer be illuminated. These include Berlin Cathedral, the Red City Hall and the Berlin Victory Column.

Meanwhile, an internal affairs council in Germany’s lower legislative house, the Bundestag, earlier this month adopted a plan for saving energy if necessary, including heating rooms less in winter.

State parliaments, including those of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, have also announced measures to cut heating requirements.

Edited by: Kieran Burke

Germany is now paying the price of not listening to President Trump. He warned the German nation that Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course. at the UNGA. You can watch it below. You will see the German delegation snigger and laugh at what he is saying. Well, they are not laughing now, and the people of Germany are now paying a high price for the foolish German government

https://youtu.be/FfJv9QYrlwg

Germans are having a hard time at the moment, far worse than the UK. Shortages of medication.

Holiday chaos

Now, this, along with the ugly prospect of being the first country in the EU to slip into a dire recession. It's going to get even worse in October for the German. You can read how in my next article.

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Graham Charles Lear
Graham Charles Lear

Written by Graham Charles Lear

What is life without a little controversy in it? Quite boring and sterile would be my answer.

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