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Bavarian economy calls for gas surcharge: "Contradicts the sense of justice"

2022-08-31T08:57:36.347Z


Bavarian economy calls for gas surcharge: "Contradicts the sense of justice" Created: 08/31/2022, 10:51 am By: Corinna Maier Bertram Brossardt, General Manager of the vbw, would give up the gas levy entirely (archive photo). © Tobias Hase/dpa In view of the high energy prices, Bertram Brossardt, General Manager of the Bavarian Business Association, calls for a gas and electricity price brake.


Bavarian economy calls for gas surcharge: "Contradicts the sense of justice"

Created: 08/31/2022, 10:51 am

By: Corinna Maier

Bertram Brossardt, General Manager of the vbw, would give up the gas levy entirely (archive photo).

© Tobias Hase/dpa

In view of the high energy prices, Bertram Brossardt, General Manager of the Bavarian Business Association, calls for a gas and electricity price brake.

On the other hand, he thinks little of the gas surcharge.

Munich – Energy prices are rising and rising.

This affects private consumers as well as companies.

The Bavarian economy is now demanding a package of measures that should be implemented quickly – before the end of September.

Many companies are about survival.

We spoke to the general manager of the Bavarian Business Association (vbw), Bertram Brossardt, about the demands for the gas surcharge and the electricity price brake.

vbw boss Brossardt: "Give up the gas levy"

High gas and electricity prices are a burden for companies.

Which sectors suffer particularly?

Of course, these are the particularly energy-intensive sectors such as the paper and chemical industries.

Not only do they suffer, everyone suffers from the high prices.

Private consumers too, I wouldn't separate them at all.

You have to imagine the dimensions: before the crisis, a kilowatt hour of gas cost six to ten cents, today it is 30 cents.

This not only affects the industry, it also affects butchers, for whom such price increases can be deadly.

Many companies are also under pressure from multiple sources: skyrocketing energy prices, expensive components, higher labor costs.

This can be life-threatening for many.

How can companies be relieved?

We now need a gas and electricity price brake that consists of several components.

Which are they?

It starts quite banally with saving energy.

Every kilowatt hour that is not consumed reduces the scarcity and thus dampens the price increase.

Is there so much savings potential?

There are already.

It starts with the work processes and ends with the lighting in the offices.

At the moment, however, the energy saving of the individual company is weakened by the fact that everyone knows that the next stage of the emergency plan is coming.

Then you have to save even more.

Companies that are already saving as much as possible are then possibly the stupid ones.

Hence our demand: One must not compare the energy consumption with the previous month, but only with the same month of the previous year.

Many companies could also switch from gas to oil with relative ease.

But even such a fuel switch is made unnecessarily difficult for them.

In what way?

The emissions approval procedures for a change are complex and time-consuming.

Things just have to go faster in a crisis like this.

Small plants could also be completely exempted from such procedures.

What do you think should be done about the nuclear power plants that are still in operation?

In any case, they must remain online until 2023.

I am not in favor of building new nuclear power plants.

But we need the existing ones until the acute energy crisis is over.

In addition, coal and oil-fired power plants that are held in reserve have to be connected to the grid again quickly.

Unfortunately, that too is slow.

Time is of the essence.

In order to prevent energy companies from collapsing, the controversial gas levy was introduced – which is now to be reformed.

What would you change?

I would give up the gas surcharge altogether.

It contradicts the general sense of justice if all gas customers, including the small ones, should now also help highly profitable gas importers with a surcharge of 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour.

We still have a more useful tool from the Corona period.

We demand a credit-financed solution.

How exactly should it look like?

Much like the state-backed loans for companies that were existentially threatened by the pandemic.

So: A company must explain how it has been affected by the crisis resulting from the Ukraine war and that it cannot bear the losses that have occurred itself and is at risk of insolvency.

Then the company can get a state-guaranteed loan, for example from the KfW, which has to be repaid when the company's financial situation has improved again.

So the taxpayer can get his money back.

And on the other hand, the tax-financed relief packages would not be that expensive.

Should the state impose conditions on companies, such as no dividend payments?

No dividend and bonus payments, this question can be asked of highly profitable companies.

This is no different than it was with KfW loans.

Finally, we have an emergency.

Suggestions are also needed in terms of electricity prices.

They currently range from a price cap to a reform of the electricity market.

What do you think is right?

First of all, the state-initiated components of the electricity price must be reduced.

The electricity tax, which currently costs 2.05 cents per kilowatt hour, must be reduced to the minimum rate of 0.1 cents permitted in Europe.

That would help considerably.

The electricity price is also rising because it is linked to the gas price.

In normal times, I'm a big fan of the free-market pricing system Merit-Order.

It causes the cheapest power plants to run.

But: The system is currently out of control because we don't have normal times.

The state must therefore intervene at this point and take gas out of the pricing system.

How is that supposed to work in practice?

In practice, of course, you will not be able to completely do without the use of gas.

But for a transitional period, the marginal costs of gas-fired power plants can no longer be taken into account in pricing.

You slide down a level, the price is then determined by the second most expensive production variant, for example coal or oil.

For this transitional period, the state has to pay the additional costs incurred for gas-fired power plants so that they are kept on standby, similar to what Spain is already doing.

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Do you have other items in your catalogue?

In general, as a trade association, it is important for us to tackle the problems at the source and not to rely on state distribution mechanisms.

The planned gas auction model, for example, can also make a contribution to this.

If only it were finally put into effect.

This model, in which large industrial consumers can resell the quantities of gas they save, has the advantage of a market-based model, which is still being coordinated.

A lot of things are suffering from this - but we currently don't have the time to wait that long for measures to be taken.

All this has to happen in September.

Which technologies should Bavaria rely on for its energy future?

We must expand hydropower and energy production from biomass.

Of course we also need solar energy and wind power, for the latter the 1000 new plants mentioned by the state government are actually necessary and realistic.

In the slipstream of the energy debate, the topic of Corona continues to concern companies.

Now there should be test obligations again and the obligation to offer home office.

How is this received?

This triggers anger in many companies.

Because the obligation to test will not only be reintroduced, but also expanded from one to two mandatory tests per week.

And this at a time when there are no other public testing requirements anywhere else.

People are allowed to go to concerts and folk festivals without restrictions, but they should then be tested in the companies.

The same applies to the home office.

It should be left to the companies themselves to decide what options there are for this.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-31

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