The gas consumption of Belgian households and small consumers has been considerably lower in recent weeks than in other years, according to consumption data from the European network of gas network operators ENTSOG. Throughout October, gas consumption remained well below the average level of recent years. In the third and fourth week, the difference even rose to more than 40 percent.
During the summer months, consumption among Belgian families was slightly higher than what you would expect. But since the second week of September, that picture has been reversed. If we look at the whole of September and October, the temperature-adjusted consumption of natural gas is 28 percent lower. If we only look at the heating season, which starts on 1 October and spans the winter, consumption is almost a quarter lower than expected, according to the newspaper.
It is not immediately clear which efforts have contributed to the substantial gas savings.