Dutch expected to lift cap on coal plants to reduce use of Russian gas

(Reuters) - The Netherlands will follow Germany and ease restrictions on coal-fired power plants as it seeks to reduce reliance on Russian gas in the wake of the war in Ukraine, a government source said on Monday.

Dutch Energy Minister Rob Jetten was expected to make the announcement during a news conference about the country's gas supplies.

The Netherlands caps production at 35% of capacity at its coal-fired plants to limit emissions that some experts say should be lifted to conserve gas as Russia has cut exports to Europe.

Germany's economy ministry announced a similar move to lift caps on coal energy production on Sunday.

The Netherlands plans to phase out four remaining coal-fired power plants by 2030 in an effort to curb emissions and meet the Paris climate goals.

The Dutch have for decades relied on cheap supplies of natural gas from the massive Groningen field, which was used to generate electricity, power industry and heat millions of households. But due to earthquakes caused by extraction, production at Groningen has been rapidly reduced and is set to be halted completely in 2023.

The war in Ukraine has forced several European countries to seek alternative sources of energy to Russian oil and gas. The Netherlands, which imported as much as 15% of its gas from Russia, is buying LNG and seeking other sources, but still faces a possible storage this winter.

"I am increasingly concerned whether all gas storage facilities in Europe can be filled,” Jetten told a party conference last weekend, the Telegraaf newspaper reported him as saying.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch; Editing by David Evans and Alison Williams)

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