“The municipal utilities are in a difficult sandwich position,” Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) told Bild am Sonntag.
“They have to pay more and more for the procurement of energy, but can only pass on these prices with a delay and have to fear payment defaults. The federal government’s protective shield for large companies must also be extended to public utilities.”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) criticizes the federal government’s crisis policy: “In this emergency, the federal government must finally do what is necessary. This constant patching up doesn’t help our country. We need a rescue package like Corona, of course also for the municipal utilities. Otherwise the lights will go out soon.”
In most municipalities, the municipal utilities take on many public functions in addition to the energy supply. Marie-Luise Wolff, President of the Association of Energy and Water Industries, makes it clear: “Due to the cross-financing, public utilities in distress means: no functioning public transport, no city cleaning, certainly no swimming pool.” The liquidity situation of some public utilities is already “more than worrying “. “If municipal utilities get into trouble, our entire security of supply is in jeopardy.” Wolff demands “unbureaucratic bridging loans and guarantees” from the federal government.
Gerd Landsberg, CEO of the Association of Towns and Municipalities, also warns in the newspaper: “In many municipal utilities it is 5 to 12. If they are no longer able to act, the supply of the citizens is at risk.”
Markus Jerger, chairman of the Mittelstand Association, assumes that several thousand companies have already had their power cut off by municipal utilities. He thinks: “The municipal utilities have a political responsibility for the supply services. It is irresponsible to pull the plug on small businesses and medium-sized companies now and thus drive them into bankruptcy.”
