The alarm sirens in the gas market are shrill and the impacts are getting closer.

However, they are not yet reaching gas consumers with full force.

The Federal Ministry of Economics announced the second stage of the gas emergency plan on Thursday.

This is primarily for forward-looking reasons, it serves as a signal for Germany and abroad about the worsening procurement situation due to the Russian delivery throttling in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Manfred Schäfers

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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However, the government is not yet pulling out all the stops that the emergency laws allow.

For the time being, it does not enable the energy supply companies to pass on the sharply increased wholesale purchase prices directly to their customers.

But that is a matter of time - weeks rather than months.

These customers are municipal utilities, companies, but also private end users.

They are already feeling the increase in gas prices, but with a time lag as part of the general terms and conditions of their regular contracts.

That is why the suppliers, who currently have to buy gas at high costs, are sitting on part of their increased purchase prices, which is why many suppliers are currently making a minus, emphasized Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens).

Passing on the price increase is intended to avoid a collapse

In order to protect the energy companies from unbearable losses up to and including insolvency, paragraph 24 of the Energy Security Act ENSIG, which has just been passed, provides that the suppliers can immediately pass on the price increases to their customers outside of the contracts.

The mechanism could be necessary to prevent an "energy supply collapse," a cascade of corporate failures along the gas supply chain, Habeck said.

Referring to what triggered the 2008/2009 financial crisis, he even spoke of a "Lehman Brothers effect" that should be avoided.

However, this mechanism, which leads to higher prices for customers more quickly, has not yet been activated.

There is no prerequisite for the network agency to determine a significant reduction in all gas import volumes, including non-Russian ones.

The failures are currently being compensated for by other countries, and even the memory levels are increasing.

Another reason for the government's hesitation is that it fears that consumers and businesses could collapse under the sudden price pressure.

That's why Berlin wants to start relief, probably in the next two weeks.

The Düsseldorf economist Jens Südekum has considered what this might look like.

His ideas have a chance of being realized because he developed them together with SPD energy politician Nina Scheer.

The Scheer-Südekum model is intended to relieve low earners

The two propose a further energy relief package for low-income earners via flat-rate grants and at the same time an energy-saving bonus for consumers who do not need it.

They should receive a financial reward if they use less gas, for example by turning down the heating.

Although this costs 6 billion euros, it could lead to savings of 20 percent.

"It's peanuts if it helps to avert gas rationing for industry and thus a recession," says the economics professor.

In any case, it is a much better way than a possible gas price cap, which, like the tank discount, creates completely wrong incentives, argues Südekum.

He warns that gas shortages could worsen if Nord Stream 1 undergoes a two-week wait from July 11 and then transit stops altogether.

Russia may take this as an opportunity to stop supplying gas afterwards.