Turns out Hungarians really did overuse gas because it was cheap
Months later than the European average, but around the time of the energy market liberalisation, Hungary finally started to adapt to the new energy market situation.
The decline in industrial gas consumption started already in the summer, but it was during the heating season that the drop in domestic consumption became really spectacular. In the last three months, Hungarians have saved more than 600 million cubic meters of gas,” says G7.
So far in 2022, the 27 EU member states have consumed less gas each month than they used to in previous years.
In Hungary, this process started a little later. According to daily flow data collected by the G7, domestic gas consumption fell only marginally in January-February, and even increased in March and April. One of the explanations for this is surely that the domestic population has not yet faced rising energy prices in the first half of the year.
While European households paid on average 45 percent more for electricity in the spring than a year earlier, and natural gas prices nearly doubled, prices in Hungary remained unchanged.
But at the beginning of August, Hungarians broke away from previous trends. By then, Hungarians had already gone through the increase in the tariffs, so the turnaround could be an effect of that, but as this is clearly not yet a heating season, it is more likely that we have seen an adjustment by industrial consumers. Since then, consumption this year has not returned to the levels we were used to and has fallen further behind as we entered the heating season.
In recent months, Hungarians have clearly been using less gas than temperatures would warrant.
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Source: G7
I don’t think it was overuse of gas. I think people are burning wood instead because it is cheaper. I t is obvious that when the price increases the demand goes down because people are looking for alternatives.