During a meeting held by the HSUP in Zagreb on Tuesday, an executive of the Croatian national power provider (HEP) said that the HEP's gas storage capacities were 95% full. He, however, expressed concern over the fact that in 2016, domestic gas production was reduced by 13%, whereas the import of gas supplies increased by 26%.
In the first nine months of 2017, gas consumption increased by 25.4% on the year.
An executive of the INA oil and gas group told the meeting that INA had secured safe and permanent provisions of gas supplies for the 2017-2018 heating season. He also said that with its domestic production, INA met nearly 50% of the domestic demand for this source of primary energy.
The former HSUP chairman, Miljenko Sunic, who was replaced by new chair Dalibor Pudic at this meeting, told the event that in the last four years, the connections to the gas supply system had risen to some 55%, and currently the system provided for some 750,000 users.
Sunic, who is now honorary HSUP chairman, called for the expansion of the gas supply grid in the coastal areas of the country.
Pudic pointed to the fact that as many as 40% of Croatian households still used wood for heating, whereas in 27.5% of households gas was the source, and 26 % were connected to local heating plants.
According to some statistics, 600 cubic metres of gas per capita are spent annually in Croatia.
Public Ombudswoman warns about energy poverty
Public Ombudswoman Lora Vidovic said at a conference on public policies against energy poverty on Monday that energy poverty was a particular type of poverty and Croatia still didn't have comprehensive measures to counter it.
Energy poverty is a lack of access to modern energy services defined as household access to electricity and clean cooking facilities (e.g. fuels and stoves that do not cause air pollution in houses). Households that cannot afford the necessary amounts of energy for acceptable conditions of living and households that spend more than a certain percent of their expenditure on energy are also considered to be stricken by energy poverty.
Living in such conditions with inadequate heating or without access to modern energy services causes respiratory, cardiovascular and mental diseases, Vidovic said yesterday.
The conference was held on the occasion of International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, an international observance marked every year on October 17 throughout the world.