2023-06-27 22:00:29
Innsbruck (OTS) – The report by competition watchdogs and E-Control has once more shown that many processes on the domestic electricity market are still unclear. In Tyrol, Tiwag and politicians are called upon to bring light into the darkness of pricing.
Austria’s large energy companies and their pricing policy have been under massive criticism for almost a year. The interim report presented yesterday by the task force made up of E-Control and competition watchdogs was not really able to relieve the burden on the corporations. Great market power of the top dogs, little competition, a lack of transparency both in pricing and towards customers, plus the questionable role of politics and its watering can subsidies. Now the examiners want to get to the bottom of all the goings-on of the energy companies. Ultimately, the matter boils down to the question: Were the chaotic circumstances here over the past year sometimes brutally exploited?
In addition to the market power in their own territory, there is also the mutual interdependence between the Austrian energy grandees. Tyrol’s state-owned energy supplier Tiwag, for example, not only has a stake in Innsbruck’s municipal utilities (49%), but also in the partially state-owned Verbund group and in Energie AG Oberösterreich. Burgenland Energie, Lower Austria’s EVN and Wien Energie have had a joint energy sales and trading company, Energie Allianz, for more than 20 years. Above all, the pricing of the energy alliance was “conspicuous”, the task force found yesterday.
The one-two between politics and the large domestic electricity companies, which are in public hands, is also disturbing. Corporations such as Verbund, which is largely owned by the Republic of Austria, initially tightened the electricity price screw with reference to wholesale prices to beyond the pain threshold, only to be happy regarding a doubling of profits followingwards. At the same time, the main owner, Austria, in the form of Chancellor Nehammer, is outraged and threatens to skim off the profits once more. And at the same time, the electricity cost subsidy invites all corporations to keep prices high – the state treasury pays anyway.
In Tyrol, Tiwag and the state government are increasingly on the defensive. While in the previous year one might still pat oneself on the back regarding the comparatively low tariffs, people now lack any understanding for the upcoming price increase. It is too unclear what actually happens to the company’s own hydroelectric power, numerous communication breakdowns have further fueled doubts regarding the state supplier.
Much of the electricity market seems to be a mystery even to the regulator E-Control. Hopefully the final report will shed some light.
Questions & contact:
Tiroler Tageszeitung
0512 5354 5101
chefredaktion@tt.com
1687903760
#TIROLER #TAGESZEITUNG #Editorial #Edition #Wednesday #June #Max #Strozzi #price #electricity #mysteries
