The traffic light coalition wants to take action against electricity discounters who do not fulfill their customer contracts due to rising purchase prices.

"This cannot simply remain without consequences, there will be legal changes," said Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) on Tuesday in Berlin.

The low-cost providers had speculated on "eternally cheap" prices on the energy exchange, which was "not a resilient business model", said the minister in a video message for an energy conference by the "Handelsblatt".

The background is that, according to the Federal Network Agency, almost 40 electricity companies stopped their deliveries in 2021, almost twice as many as before.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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The high prices on the international energy markets were often cited as the reason for termination.

The quantities bought there at high cost in the short term often could not be financed with the long-term fixed low tariffs with the end customers.

Since the delivery was then stopped, many customers fell into the replacement supply of the default suppliers.

Customers have to take these, but they buy additional gas or electricity for them at high prices and can therefore only offer them expensive tariffs.

Habeck promised a review so that "long-term deposits are regulated more clearly".

It cannot be that consumers who want to save 50 or 100 euros are the "cheated".

How many gas power plants are needed?

In the short term, the federal government wants to relieve consumers by significantly reducing the EEG surcharge and abolishing it completely in 2023. In the medium and long term, the expansion of renewable energies will reduce the burden, according to Habeck. It is already true: “Whenever the wind blows strongly, the prices go down.” In business, it was noted benevolently that Habeck related his plans more explicitly than usual to competitiveness. He admitted that the jump in energy prices was also difficult for the industry to cope with, and that we needed help here. Berlin agreed "that what is needed will also be financed". Habeck remained vague, but referred to climate difference agreements. The state wants to use this to compensate for additional costs that arise, for example, from companies using hydrogen instead of natural gas.

The warning came from the economy that the end of the EEG surcharge would not relieve energy-intensive companies because they did not pay them at all. On the other hand, the burdens are increasing, for example due to national CO2 pricing, rising grid fees and raw material prices. If companies passed on these costs, inflation would rise even more, and international competitiveness would also fall. The EU's so-called CO2 border adjustment would be difficult to enforce, which is why export-oriented Germany would suffer particularly badly.

The CEO of the energy group Eon, Leonhard Birnbaum, criticized the new EU taxonomy, according to which gas-fired power plants are only considered "sustainable" under conditions that can hardly be met.

This makes financing from "green" investments very difficult.

"We need dozens of gas-fired power plants and clear return prospects for potential investors," says Birnbaum.

"Here the federal government must also show a clear edge to Brussels and the EU taxonomy." Gas is an important bridging technology, without which an early phase-out of coal "won't work".