He said the three plants due to close at the end of this year represented only a “small percentage” of Germany’s total electricity capacity. “But it might make sense” to let them run longer, he added. Scholz said the authorities would “draw our conclusions” from a stress test of the German electricity system currently underway and then decide what to do. The chancellor also laid the blame for delays in the development of a crucial turbine for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline in Russia, accusing her of not delivering the equipment. “It is obvious that nothing – absolutely nothing – prevents this turbine from being transported to Russia and installed there,” he said. Gazprom, the Russian gas group, had cited the absence of the turbine as it cut gas flow through Nord Stream 1 in mid-June by 60 percent. It went further last week, reducing flows to 20 percent of its capacity. The move sparked fears that Europe would fail to fill its natural gas stockpile ahead of the crucial winter heating season and face gas shortages that could disrupt daily life and push Europe into recession. Scholz made the remarks while standing next to the turbine at the center of the row – an unusual intervention designed to show the German public that nothing stood in the way of Gazprom delivering the kit. But Gazprom continues to insist that the problems with Nord Stream 1 are Europe’s fault, citing problems with turbine maintenance. “We urge the partners to resolve the issues as soon as possible and the situation with natural gas supplies to the European market will be normalized immediately,” Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov told Rossiya-24 state television. The turbine was undergoing maintenance in Canada, but the Canadian government initially refused to send it back to Russia, citing the Kremlin’s sanctions regime over Ukraine. Ottawa later relented when Scholz asked it to exempt the kit from sanctions. “What is important is to make it clear that this turbine can be deployed and used at any time,” Scholz said during a visit to the Siemens Energy plant in Mülheim an der Ruhr. “There is nothing mystical going on here. . . The turbine is there, it can be delivered, someone just has to say they would like to have it.” Christian Bruch, chief executive of Siemens Energy, which built the turbine, said Gazprom had no justification to blame the curtailment of gas flows through Nord Stream 1 on the absence of the turbine. He said that when it was sent to Canada, the Russians had an identical spare that could have been installed in its place. He said there were six such turbines at Portovaya, Nord Stream 1’s compressor station, and only five were needed to bring the pipeline up to 100 percent. However, only one was working. “That’s why we’re only at 20 percent now,” he said. Markelov insisted that the gas compressor operating at Portovaya was the only one “in working order”. Turbines at other units required maintenance or repairs, he said. The question of whether Germany should keep operating its nuclear power plants has become a huge bone of contention between the three parties in the country’s ruling coalition. The smallest of the three, the liberal Free Democrats, want the factories to run longer, while Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens are opposed. But Scholz indicated that a government review was underway. He hinted that some German states, such as Bavaria, might have to leave their nuclear power plants running longer because they had delayed building wind farms and new power grids. “And we have to take that into account,” he said. He also said Germany was exporting electricity to France, which had to shut down several of its nuclear plants for technical reasons, describing it as an “important contribution to European solidarity”.
