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The price explosion in the electricity market is also threatening the hospitality industry. The industry demands a political solution.
Daniel Häni is co-founder of the well-known coffee house “Mitte” in Basel. More than 1000 guests visit the coffee every day. 80 people work in the company.
Almost 200,000 francs for electricity instead of 20,000
In July of this year came the electric shock for the “middle”. They received an offer from their energy provider IWB for the contract that expired at the end of the year. The price has increased almost tenfold: instead of 20,000 francs, the well-known coffee now pays 180,000 francs for electricity per year.
In 2014, the company decided to switch to the so-called “free electricity market”. Around 30,000 other companies in Switzerland did the same. Since liberalization in 2009, if a company purchases more than 100,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, it can opt out of the basic supply with fixed but relatively high prices and switch to the free electricity market, where prices were significantly cheaper . However, once you have taken this step, you can never go back.
Hosts fear an existential crisis
Daniel Häni knew from the “Mitte” that electricity prices could rise and fall. Nobody said at the time that the tariffs would increase tenfold in one fell swoop because of the current political situation, so that electricity prices would suddenly turn into a roulette game, like in a casino or on the stock exchange.
After all, we can’t make coffee infinitely more expensive. That would plunge us into an existential crisis.
And the massive additional costs cannot simply be passed on to customers, says Daniel Häni to the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”: “We cannot make coffee infinitely more expensive. That would plunge us into an existential crisis.”
Basel Landlords Association says: “Not an isolated case”
Unfortunately not an isolated case, confirms Maurus Ebneter, President of the Basler Landlords’ Association: “Ten to 20 percent of our members are very badly affected.” In Basel alone, around 100 restaurants are in a similar situation. They have to renew their electricity contract at the dumbest moment. There are many more in Switzerland. These are confronted with a 14- or even 15-fold increase in the price of electricity. And that poses existential problems for restaurateurs.
If, in addition to goods and wages, electricity also becomes massively more expensive, you cannot simply pass this on to customers. These too currently have less in their wallets: keyword health insurance premiums and rising heating and food costs.
In fact, these companies have not been sufficiently informed about the risks of the free electricity market.
No reserves because of Corona either
For the industry, politics is therefore required. One possibility would be to cap electricity prices, says Maurus Ebneter, who is also on the board of Gastrosuisse. Or that the companies affected can switch back to the basic service under certain conditions. “Without government measures, affected companies will go down,” he says. Unless they have large reserves, but that is no longer the case after 2 years of the corona crisis.
In fact, Ebneter believes that these companies were not sufficiently informed about the risks of the free electricity market. He therefore speaks of an “exceptional situation”.
Federal Council examines measures
As the “Tagesanzeiger” published this week, a working group led by Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin is currently examining whether a step back into basic services would be possible due to the extraordinary situation. Various motions are also pending. However, the electricity industry has already waved preventively.