Mr. Krebber, industry and consumers are complaining about high electricity and gas prices.

The energy giant RWE must be experiencing golden times right now, right?

Sven Astheimer

Responsible editor for corporate reporting.

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Helmut Buender

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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We are also interested in long-term stability and not in prices that are as high as possible in the short term.

It is not good for Germany if we have energy prices that destroy the competitiveness of industry and are no longer sustainable for consumers.

Can you give hope that the situation will ease up in the foreseeable future?

The geopolitical situation, especially the tension on the Ukrainian border, is making the markets very nervous and making forecasts unusually difficult.

What we also see is that the economy picked up strongly after Corona and with it the demand for energy.

This effect on prices will normalize.

Another factor is the political will to make energy more expensive through high CO2 prices.

The price level will therefore remain high until there is enough CO2-free electricity from renewable energy sources.

And thirdly, in Germany we stopped generating electricity significantly faster than we built and built new ones.

So what matters now is how quickly the shackles can be broken and how quickly companies can invest.

The best remedy against high prices is the rapid expansion of renewable energies.

Does politics have to provide relief in the short term?

Economics Minister Habeck has already initiated a number of things.

But it takes three to five years before energy policy decisions take effect.

That is why you have to think about help for citizens who cannot shoulder the heavy burden.

It would help if the EEG levy was completely abolished as soon as possible.

Industry doesn't need help?

It becomes more difficult with direct support because of EU state aid law.

But you can't let things go.

We are already seeing a slowdown in industrial production.

There are still isolated cases, such as aluminum manufacturers, for whom production is no longer worthwhile given today's energy prices.

But the fact that production is being cut back will not remain an isolated case, because at today's price level, supply and demand can only be balanced by a fall in demand.

So instead of creeping deindustrialization, we need competitive electricity prices again.

That sounds like the usual threat scenario for higher state aid.

This is a very real development.

Ultimately, production is shifted to where energy is cheaper.

We have already seen this in the UK, where there has been significant deindustrialisation over the last twenty years, with industrial electricity demand falling by up to 2 per cent a year.

It could be something similar with us, even if we succeed in reconciling climate policy and industrial policy.

Are German politicians underestimating the risks of high energy prices?

We are experiencing a gradual process.

Plants are not dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere, but the consequences become apparent when new investments are made in the steel industry, in the chemical industry and elsewhere that are no longer made in Germany.

Is the power supply in danger when nuclear power plants and more and more coal-fired power plants go offline?