Avoid nasty surprises
Netzagentur demands higher gas discounts for households
4/2/2022, 11:38 am
Many consumers are not even aware of the dramatic rise in gas prices. Because their suppliers have not yet increased the monthly deductions. The head of the Federal Network Agency fears that many will then face an unsolvable problem the next time they are billed.
In dealing with the gas crisis, the Federal Network Agency has spoken out in favor of not confronting private households with rising costs too late. “Many households will only notice how much the price has risen when they get their heating bill next year and will not be able to cope with the additional payments,” said Klaus Müller, head of the authorities, of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. “If the discounts are not increased until next year, many people will be unprepared.”
At the same time, he criticized demands that the network agency should already determine the order in which industrial companies would be switched off from the gas supply in an emergency. “That won’t work,” Müller told the newspaper. Such decisions are dependent on “too many boundary conditions”. The network agency will now define positive criteria. But that too is complex because of the interdependence of the economy.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck announced the so-called early warning level of the gas emergency plan on Wednesday in view of the gas dispute with Russia. There is still an alert level and finally an emergency level in which active intervention takes place. The Federal Network Agency then decides who will receive how much gas. Private consumers and social institutions enjoy special protection.
Industry versus favoring households
The Federal Network Agency is currently working on criteria for how gas will be distributed in the event of a further tightening. To this end, she is holding talks with the industry to find out exactly what gas is required.
The employers’ association Gesamtmetall meanwhile spoke out against giving preference to private households in an emergency. “Nobody would be served if people were sitting at home in their apartments at 24 degrees, but the companies in which they work were collapsing,” warned Gesamtmetall President Stefan Wolf in an interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. The network agency must therefore reconsider its order of gas shutdown in an emergency.
Wolf warned of the “biggest economic slump in the post-war period” if the industry was forced to shut down on a large scale due to a lack of gas supplies. He then expects that short-time work will increase dramatically and that some companies will have to lay off employees.