In the dispute over the technical feasibility of operating nuclear power plants in reserve, the Federal Ministry of Economics is attacking the company Preussenelektra.
"Of course, economic interests also play a role at Preussenelektra," said Stefan Wenzel, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, the FAZ. Preussenelektra's arguments do not make sense.
"They say they can't easily restart the shut down reactor.
So far they have been doing this every year after the revision,” said Wenzel, who was appointed State Secretary in mid-July.
Christian Geinitz
Business correspondent in Berlin
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Julia Loehr
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Such a revision is expensive, the system is idle for many weeks and many technicians are busy.
"I can imagine that the company is trying to avoid the audit," Wenzel suspects.
This was preceded by a criticism by Preussenelektra boss Guido Knott of Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), who wants to transfer the Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 (EnBW) nuclear power plants operated by the group to reserve operation.
Knott described this as "technically unfeasible".
The Ministry of Economics had rejected this and emphasized on Friday that there had already been talks with Preussenelektra before Habeck's advance.
State Secretary Wenzel also commented on the electricity price brake announced by the federal government.
There had been calls from the ranks of the Greens to relieve households with lower incomes in particular.
Wenzel now rejected this: "But calculating the basic requirement according to the size of the apartment or the number of people will hardly work, because the energy suppliers don't have this data at all," said Wenzel, a member of the Greens.
You have to find a process that the municipal utilities can also do and for which they have the digital possibilities.
The FAZ had previously reported that the municipal utilities did not consider such plans to be feasible.