Uniper, Germany’s largest natural gas importer, said that in order to save energy as much as possible and alleviate financial difficulties, the company closed half of its headquarters offices and lowered the temperature of the other half.
Uniper is headquartered in the western German city of Düsseldorf. The German “Rheinische Post” quoted a company spokesman as saying on the 24th that 50% of the company’s headquarters building has turned off all equipment and lights and stopped cleaning; the temperature has been lowered to 14 degrees Celsius, which is what can be done without damaging the building. Set minimum temperature. In office spaces that remain open, the temperature will be lowered to 20 degrees Celsius.
The German government decided in September to nationalize Uniper, pledging to inject 29 billion euros to buy equity and fill financial gaps to rescue the energy giant, which is on the brink of bankruptcy due to the current European gas supply crisis.
Unipe originally cooperated with Gazprom for a long time to purchase Russian-made natural gas to supply the German market and set up a subsidiary in Russia. After Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine in late February, the European Union, together with the United States, imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia and formulated a plan to gradually “get rid of its dependence on Russia for energy”. Rising, tight supply. Germany, which originally had two direct gas pipelines with Russia, was the first to bear the brunt. Restricted by the sanctions, Uniper and other German energy companies hurriedly withdrew from Russia. A large amount of investment went to waste and suffered heavy losses. They had to rely on the federal government to help.
The Rheinische Post reported that Eon Energy Group, Germany’s largest energy company, is also taking measures to reduce energy consumption in office spaces, including turning off company lights and reducing hot water supply, hoping to reduce energy consumption by at least 20%.