VIENNA (Reuters) - The gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine has forced Austria to switch units at two gas plant sites to run on dirtier fuel oil in order to help supply domestic energy demand.

The Austrian regulator said on Monday it had been running the units, which can produce a daily total of just under 1,000 megawatts (MW), for several days but could not give an exact time period.
The units at power stations in Simmering in Vienna and in Theiss in Lower Austria province have been reconfigured to run on fuel oil for as long as needed, a regulator official said.
“It is of course more expensive, there are more CO2 emissions, there are many technical issues, but we can carry on, hopefully not for too long, but for as long as necessary,” Tahir Kapetanovic, head of electricity at regulator E-Control, said.
Austria’s supply of Russian gas has been cut to zero since deliveries were first disrupted last Tuesday. It gets about 51 percent of its gas from Russia, 31 percent from Norway and other countries while some 18 percent is produced domestically.
Kapetanovic said around 1,400 MW, or half of Austria’s large gas plant sites, could be switched to run on other sources of fuel if needed but only Simmering and Theiss were so far affected.