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RWE headquarters in Essen
Photo: Reuters Photographer / REUTERS
The Bundeskartellamt assumes that the energy producer RWE holds a dominant position.
This emerges from the authority's latest analysis of competitive conditions in the power generation market.
According to Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt, 2021 was characterized by increased demand, the first power plant shutdowns as part of the phase-out of coal and a comparatively low level of electricity fed in from renewable energies.
"As expected, the power plant park of the still largest electricity producer RWE became indispensable for covering the demand for electricity for a significantly larger number of hours." Overall, RWE is now above the threshold for a market-dominant position.
This means that RWE is subject to stricter behavioral controls in the control of its power plants, the cartel office said.
"RWE must ensure that they do not control and operate their power plants in such a way that they abuse their market position." At the moment, however, there is no initial suspicion of abuse.
RWE rejected the assessment of the cartel office.
The company said it was not responsible for the circumstances and the market environment that led to the allegedly achieved dominant position.
The conventional capacities available in Germany as a whole have decreased significantly due to legal framework conditions such as the phase-out of coal and nuclear energy.
RWE has not built any new conventional capacities.
On the contrary, in the period from 2020 to 2022, power plants with a total output of more than 7000 megawatts will be shut down.
RWE also accused the authority of methodological flaws.
The Bundeskartellamt, for example, only insufficiently took foreign competitive pressure into account in its analysis.