The Austrian government has decided to restart a coal power plant in the south of the country in response to energy shortages caused by cuts in Russian gas supplies.
The Austrian government said in a statement after an emergency meeting that it will work with Austria's largest electricity supplier, Weibang, to restart a coal power plant in the southern city of Merach.
The Austrian environment ministry told local media that the purpose of this was to be able to generate electricity from coal again in an emergency, but the restart process could take months.
The Merrach coal power plant was shut down in spring 2020 and was the last coal power plant in Austria. The Austrian government previously proposed to fully realize clean energy supply by 2030.
Gazprom has recently successively reduced gas supply to Europe via the Nord Stream-1 natural gas pipeline. The Austrian state oil company said on the 16th that Russia has informed that the gas supply will be reduced.
The Austrian Chancellor said that 80% of the country's natural gas is imported from Russia, which means that it needs to make up for the lack of natural gas supply from other channels to ensure the continued growth of natural gas reserves. "Our primary goal is to secure domestic supplies."
As of the middle of this month, Austria's gas storage facilities were about 39 percent full, according to a government statement.
