Photo: dpa | Julian Stratenschulte
The energy price crisis continues to hit private households hard. Discount providers who were able to establish themselves with unsustainable business models stopped supplying electricity and gas at short notice in winter, said Jutta Gurkmann from the Federal Consumer Association (VZBV) at the end of last week at an online event. Consumers who slipped into the replacement and then into the basic supply are sometimes confronted with additional costs of up to 1300 euros a year. Gurkmann complained that this would affect up to 3.6 million people – and particularly low-income households.
The VZBV now presented a socially oriented catalog of demands. These include a moratorium on electricity and gas bans at least until April and the abolition of the electricity tax and industry exemptions from network charges. The association also likes the end of the EEG surcharge planned by the traffic light government, provided that this is passed on to customers. However, the VZBV considers the climate money promised by the coalition to be a better solution. A full return of the CO2 pricing would bring a fairer social balance, it was said to be the justification.
In the following debate, the president of the social association VdK, Verena Bentele, also warned against extremely high back energy payments and utility bills. Many tenants no longer know how to finance this.
For Bentele, electricity is »part of the services of general interest«. That’s how he should be treated, she demanded. In order to help quickly and effectively, the VdK President advocated lowering the electricity tax. That is a “fair way”, because it would relieve households that have little money and, as is well known, also cause comparatively little CO2.
However, such appeals and demands do not impress large associations in the energy industry, as the event showed. Low-cost providers would have left hundreds of thousands of customers out in the rain? That was clearly illegal behavior, Kerstin Andreae, head of the energy and water management association BDEW, dismissed the criticism of what was happening on the market. Dubious practices must be made more difficult in the future, but BDEW believes that discount tariffs and short-term purchasing policies on the electricity market are “legitimate business strategies”.
In order to remedy the »dubious« people, the former Green Party politician Andreae called for a regulation in the Energy Industry Act that in future the cessation of business activities must be reported to the regulatory authority at least three months in advance.
Ingbert Liebing also likes the three-month period: the period does not protect against insolvency, the head of the association of municipal companies admitted. In the termination phase, however, customers could look around the market for new contracts.
The announcement period of three months is also sufficient for the VZBV to counteract the dangers posed by electricity discounters. In addition, however, minimum standards for the economic performance of the providers should be introduced.
The large industry associations did not say a word about the latter. In the Federal Ministry of Economics, on the other hand, there are already considerations as to how questionable practices, especially those of low-cost providers, can be put a stop to, State Secretary Oliver Krischer, long-time energy politician for the Greens in the Bundestag, made clear in the debate. He wants to give the authorities “tools” to investigate suspected cases of dubious business. However, one does not want to create any new bureaucracy and maintain competition.
However, a decision has already been made about an amendment to the Energy Industry Act, according to which a business cessation must be registered in advance, Krischer further clarified. The ministry will probably also allow the splitting tariffs desired by the suppliers for existing customers (inexpensive) and new customers (expensive), but for a limited time. And with the abolition of the EEG surcharge, the government wants to ensure that the price reduction really does reach consumers, asserted the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. The government is still discussing whether the end of the EEG surcharge will come this summer or not until the beginning of 2023.
Apart from that, Krischer’s remarks made it clear that – with the exception of the EEG surcharge – cosmetic corrections are to be expected in electricity prices. No matter what you are discussing – one cent of electricity price reduction in Germany means five billion euros, and it must be clear what else can be done with five billion euros, Krischer rejected further demands for reductions. You can ask for a lot, but that has to be compensated for somewhere else.
With the reduction in the EEG surcharge, the scope in the coalition for further nationwide electricity price reductions is apparently severely restricted. Incidentally, Krischer said nothing about the green flagship project, climate money.