pipes at the landfall facilities of the nord stream 1 gas pipeline are pictured in lubmin germany march 8 2022 reutershannibal hanschke berlin june 30 reuters  germanys gas consumption fell by more than a third in may compared with the previous year the bdew power industry association said on thursday citing high prices energy savings and mild weather as reasons for the drop as europes biggest economy raced to avert the disruption of critical industries from cuts to russian gas supplies the countrys gas consumption fell by 143 in the first five months of the year to 460 billion kilowatt hours kwh bdew said significantly milder weather this spring than in 2021 was a reason for the drop as gas is mainly used for heating the association said consumption fell by 347 in may and by 108 when adjusted for temperature effects bdew said in a statement bdew managing director kerstin andreae said the economic downturn and the governments appeals to people to save energy as part of efforts to reduce dependency on russian fuel also played a role electricity generation from natural gas which accounted for 12 of total gas consumption last year also declined by 143 in the first five months of the year to 37 billion kwh but generation from gasfired power plants in may was slightly more in 2021 because of less renewable energy and the phase out of nuclear and coal it said without specifying how much more