Small and medium-sized industry unhappy with minister’s power price approach

At the beginning of his term, Germany’s energy and economy minister Peter Altmaier said he wanted to reduce the power price burden for small and medium industrial companies, but a year later industry representatives are criticising the fact that nothing has happened, writes Klaus Stratmann in Handelsblatt. Ingeborg Neumann, who speaks for a group of 10,000 small and medium-sized industrial companies that have founded the group “Fair Energy Transition”, said power prices in Germany were “a killer for our competitiveness”. Today, Altmaier will meet with industry representatives to talk about his proposed national industrial strategy in which power costs will be among the topics.

Germany’s power price has a high share of fees and taxes. While large energy-intensive industries are (partially) exempt from some of these levies, many small and medium-sized companies complain that electricity costs in Germany are putting too much of a burden on them compared to their international competitors.