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Public utilities and the federal government are negotiating a protective shield

2022-09-26T01:46:25.824Z


Public utilities and the federal government are negotiating a protective shield Created: 2022-09-26Updated: 2022-09-26 03:43 An employee of Stadtwerke München is standing in the geothermal plant in the southern thermal power station. © Sven Hoppe/dpa In view of rising energy costs, the municipal utilities have been demanding liquidity support for a long time - is a legal framework being created


Public utilities and the federal government are negotiating a protective shield

Created: 2022-09-26Updated: 2022-09-26 03:43

An employee of Stadtwerke München is standing in the geothermal plant in the southern thermal power station.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

In view of rising energy costs, the municipal utilities have been demanding liquidity support for a long time - is a legal framework being created for this now?

Berlin - The municipal utilities and the federal government are negotiating a billion-euro protective shield in the energy crisis.

"We are in talks with the federal government about what measures are necessary to protect municipal utilities from the risks that we see and some of which are already acute," said Ingbert Liebing, Managing Director of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU), the German press Agency.

"We need liquidity support for the municipal utilities, which now have to pay ten times what they used to pay for gas purchases in the past," said Liebing.

This poses enormous financial challenges for the municipal utilities, which first have to buy something and also have to deposit security deposits before they can sell and fulfill their delivery obligations.

“For this financial item, we are talking about a mid-double-digit billion amount.

The most important thing is that the federal government recognizes the need for action and takes action.”

The municipal utilities have been demanding a protective shield for a long time.

Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) had announced extended aid for companies due to the sharp increase in energy costs.

In the federal government, however, the question of financing is particularly open.

Liebing had already warned of a collapse in the electricity and gas supply if there were no state aid for ailing municipal utilities.

"If we allow municipal utilities to go bankrupt and withdraw as electricity and gas suppliers, that can trigger a chain reaction - up to and including the collapse of the energy supply," he told the "Spiegel".

The background to the tense situation is the lack of Russian gas deliveries, and the prices for replacement purchases have exploded.

dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-26

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