Due to concerns about the energy supply, the prices for electricity and natural gas in the European wholesale trade are skyrocketing.
On the futures market, i.e. for deliveries in the medium term, the price for one megawatt hour of electricity climbed to around 850 euros in Germany over the course of this week.
In France, it even surpassed the 1,000 euro mark – more than a tenfold increase within a year.
Suppliers successively pass on the additional wholesale costs to the end consumer, with price increases being capped by the state in countries such as France and Great Britain.
The development is already hitting many companies with full force.
some energy-intensive companies have already stopped production.
Christian Geinitz
Business correspondent in Berlin
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Niklas Zaboji
Economic correspondent in Paris
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The market participants are nervous about the supply situation in the coming winter.
"Companies anticipating blackouts over the next few months, but even more likely rationing over the next few years, tend to hedge in the futures markets," say French energy market professionals Christophe Béguinet and Jacques Percebois.
That drives up the prices.
The electricity price is also boosted by the low level of the rivers, because it restricts the production of hydroelectric power plants and makes the transport of coal more difficult.
Added to this is the increase in the price of CO2 certificates and the persistently strong global demand for energy sources.
The meager power generation from wind turbines also affects the price in the short term.
Habeck under pressure because of the gas levy
Apart from the Russian gas supply throttling, the greatest uncertainty at present comes from the French nuclear power plants.
With 56 reactors, they play a central role in Europe's energy supply, but due to defective pipelines, heat-related cooling problems and routine maintenance work, fewer than half of them have been online for weeks.
France recently had to buy a lot of electricity from its neighboring countries after exporting more than it imported in the summer months of the past few years - and is likely to remain a net importer in the winter months.
Voices are already being raised to stop electricity trading.
"We need a moratorium on electricity exports from Germany to other European countries," demanded Dietmar Bartsch, the co-group leader of the Left Party, in the "Augsburger Allgemeine".
It can hardly be explained to the citizens why the need to save and skyrocketing prices should apply in this country when a lot of electricity is exported at the same time.
Market participants are concerned that the restart of the shut down French nuclear power plants has repeatedly been delayed.
The operator Électricité de France only announced on Thursday that the shutdown of four reactors would be extended again.
In view of this, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is planning to decouple the electricity price from the high gas price, reported the “Handelsblatt”.
How quickly this is possible and what effect it would have remained unclear for the time being.
The gas levy that has just been decided to save ailing gas importers like Uniper is meanwhile blowing around Habeck's ears.
On Friday he announced that he would change the procedure at short notice.
Habeck said it was more than unsatisfactory that companies that actually made good profits and did not need the help could benefit from the levy.
He wanted to exclude "free riders".
This requires a legally secure solution, which must be found in September.
Abolishing the levy entirely would not be an alternative, however.
Changes in the gas allocation
In Berlin, a government spokesman said that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) supported the gas levy, but that changes had to be sought: "We have to wait and see this review." Christian Lindner's (FDP) Ministry of Finance said on Friday about the levy, the idea he always came from Habeck's house.
One is surprised by media reports that the Ministry of Finance was the driver of the levy.
In addition, the economic department had never made representations with the suggestion of using federal funds instead of the levy.
Meanwhile, the German economy has made it clear that although it is using less gas than before and thus preventing supply shortages, companies are paying a high price for this.
"The decline in gas consumption in industry is expensive," DIHK General Manager Achim Dercks told the FAZ.
It is based not only on savings and the switch to other forms of energy, but also on production losses: "An alarmingly large number of companies feel compelled to react to the high energy prices by reducing production or even shutting down."
Dercks thus put the positive statements made by the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, into perspective.
He had praised the fact that gas consumption by industrial customers in July was 21.3 percent below the average for previous years.
"The decline in gas consumption in industry shows that we can manage to avert a gas emergency," says Müller.
Dercks replied that the high gas prices in the industry had already caused a loss of value of around 20 billion euros and suggested extending and expanding the emergency payments for the industry.
The rescue of the gas importers puts an additional burden on the companies: "In the course of deliberations on corrections to the gas levy, consideration should be given to paying the costs directly from the state budget," says Dercks.
Also the boss of the energy association BDEW,