The European Commission has approved Germany's 450-million-euro measure to establish a temporary lignite supply reserve in a bid to safeguard natural gas availability, the commission said in a statement released on Friday.

Under the EU state aid rules, the temporary measure will enable Germany's "five lignite-fired power plants to be on stand-by and ready to be activated to the extent needed in the event of natural gas shortages," the statement said.

In Germany, energy prices jumped 43.9 percent year on year in September, pushing inflation rate to 10 percent in the same month, the country's Federal Statistical Office reported this Thursday.

As a move to safeguard access to natural gas amid the Russian natural gas shortages, the new measure is effective from October 1, 2022, and through March 31, 2024 at the latest. The sum will be used to compensate operators of five currently deactivated lignite-fired power plants, "for the costs incurred in ensuring the plants are operational and ready to return to the market in case of need."

When facing risks of gas shortage, these power plants would enter the electricity market for a certain period of time, participate like any other electricity generator.  

According to Germany, the measure will provide the country and the whole European electricity system with additional generating capacity in the short-term to replace that from Russian gas.