As great as the concerns of many citizens about the rapidly rising energy prices may be, the reaction was surprisingly indifferent: in early summer, hardly any customers followed the recommendation of the Frankfurt energy supplier Mainova to increase their discounts for electricity, gas and district heating in order to avoid such a difficult to cope with avoid paying back.

In the end, Mainova made the decision for consumers and recalculated the deductions for everyone.

Inga Janovic

Editor in the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and responsible editor of the business magazine Metropol.

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Gunter Murr

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Petra Kirchhoff

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The other energy suppliers in the region have now done the same.

They all sent more letters to customers this year than seldom: at least two price increases for electricity, gas and district heating had to be announced, with a brief reduction in electricity prices in between. Now the price is calculated on the basis of the newly determined levies for gas and the reduced VAT .

Energy saving tips are even more common.

A company spokesman comments only half-jokingly that no other industry advises its customers so enthusiastically that they need fewer of those products that are the basis of their own business.

In any case, gas station operators would not advertise leaving the car at home even in this crisis.

However, the savings tips from the utilities also serve their own interests: the companies are preparing for a sharp increase in the number of payment defaults.

Ingbert Liebing, General Manager of the Association of Municipal Enterprises, recently reported in an interview that the German public utilities are assuming eight to 15 percent of customers this winter who will not be able to pay their bills.

So far, the proportion has been less than one percent.

“We expect the big wave in autumn”

Anyone who realizes that the energy costs are exceeding their budget should contact their provider immediately. This recommendation can be heard from all providers in the Rhine-Main region.

Otherwise, things can happen quickly: the so-called energy freeze, i.e. the electricity or gas being switched off, can threaten just eight weeks after a discount has not been made.

That, the suppliers emphasize, is always only the last resort, before that many letters and offers of advice went out to the customers, mostly solutions were found.

Both Offenbacher EVO and Mainova report that the cases in which the meter had to be sealed have recently become much rarer.

At EVO, with 240,000 customers, there were still 1,500 in 2021, and at Mainova, with more than a million customers, there were almost 4,800.

Changed deductions, installment payments, anonymous cash payments, and deferrals are instruments that the suppliers work with.

Everyone is assuming that these will be used more frequently in the near future.

"We are currently examining the personnel situation that would be necessary to process the additional payment defaults and the legal questions that could arise on this subject," reports Süwag, based in Frankfurt-Höchst, on behalf of all.

The increasing energy costs are also the reason why the demand at the consumer centers in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate has exploded in recent weeks, as the organizations report.

The Hessian consumer advocates have not yet noticed that power cuts are being imposed more frequently.

In view of the sharply increasing monthly deductions, however, they expect it.

The current figures only appear with a delay, says Antje Kahlheber, a consultant in the energy advice department of the consumer advice center in Rhineland-Palatinate.

"We expect the big wave in the fall."