Thursday, December 23, 2021
Bankruptcies of energy discounters
Dispute over tariff for released electricity customers
After the bankruptcy of the energy discounter Stromio, there is a dispute over how to deal with its customers: Basic suppliers often demand high new customer rates. While consumer advocates complain, energy associations hold against it: Existing customers should not have to pay for cheap contracts that have been canceled.
Against the background of the short-term suspension of electricity and gas supplies by energy discounters, the established energy industry is demanding more security for basic suppliers from politicians. These companies, mostly municipal utilities, have to take over customers whose original suppliers no longer supply. “Our companies are facing considerable challenges due to the exploding energy procurement prices,” said Kerstin Andreae, General Manager of the German Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW). For the new customers in the so-called replacement supply, the companies would have to buy additional energy at the currently extremely high prices.
In such cases, the BDEW demanded that the federal government be able to temporarily fall back on interest-free loans from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. There is also an urgent need for legal protection for the legally secure introduction of new customer tariffs in the basic service, said Andreae. In terms of consumer protection, it is only fair if existing customers do not have to pay for the behavior of the discount company.
In such cases, consumer advocates see the introduction of new tariffs for new customers as critical. In some cases, those affected with new contracts in the basic supply paid more than twice as much as comparable existing customers, said the energy expert at the consumer advice center in North Rhine-Westphalia, Udo Sieverding. This unequal treatment is legally questionable. “This approach clearly contradicts our understanding of the free market and the liberalization of the energy market.” A punishment of customers who have changed the provider is criticized sharply. “The split in basic supply tariffs must therefore not be permanent as a result of the extreme increases in energy prices.”
Stromio stops deliveries
The Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) defended the introduction of its own tariffs for new customers. The municipal utilities in particular had planned with foresight and could therefore spare their customers uncertainty and even greater price jumps, said Ingbert Liebing, VKU General Manager. At the same time, they take on stranded customers in the replacement supply. “With differentiated tariffs, the negative consequences for existing customers can be limited.” In connection with the delivery settings by low-cost providers, the VKU demanded “more efficient supervision by the Federal Network Agency over dubious providers”.
On Wednesday it became known that the electricity discounter Stromio had stopped its deliveries with reference to a “price explosion at the European energy trading centers” at the end of Tuesday. Industry experts assume that several hundred thousand customers are affected. According to Sieverding, the procurement strategy of discounters was to stock up on the spot market at short notice at low prices. “The discount store model has worked well for years, now they are falling on their noses by the dozen,” said the WAZ energy expert. According to the Federal Network Agency, 39 energy suppliers in Germany have announced or have already completed the end of supplies in the current year.