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The electricity meter: Gives many worried looks
Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / dpa
Another electricity provider has filed for bankruptcy because of the high energy prices, according to a report by the magazine “Wirtschaftswoche”.
It is about the Hamburg energy company "Smiling Green Energy", which supplies around 1500 private and commercial customers with energy from renewable sources under the brand name "Naturally Green Electricity".
The Hamburg district court appointed Tobias Brinkmann from the insolvency law firm Brinkmann & Partner as the preliminary insolvency administrator.
Brinkmann told the “Wirtschaftswoche” that the “rapid rise in energy prices was the main trigger for Smiling Green Energy's bankruptcy”.
If a company has agreed long-term contracts with its customers at lower prices, "but now has to buy expensive on the spot market in order to fulfill the contracts, that inevitably leads to problems."
Gas, fuel, coal, oil - everything is getting more expensive
The entire industry is under considerable pressure, said Brinkmann.
The Hamburg case may only be the prelude to further bankruptcies in the market.
Last week, the Brandenburg electricity and natural gas supplier Otima Energie AG filed for bankruptcy. As a justification, the company cited "massive increases in wholesale prices", the associated higher costs for prepayment and security, and "severe restrictions on the available quantities on the procurement side". In September, the gas provider Deutsche Energiepool GmbH announced that it would stop delivering nationwide to its customers.
The trigger are the considerable price increases on the energy markets.
Electricity on the stock exchange has become around 140 percent more expensive in Germany since the beginning of the year.
The costs of petrol, diesel, gas and heating oil have also increased.
Even the price of coal - fuel has long been considered the first loser in the fight against climate change - has doubled in the past three months.
beb / afp