In one of its regular surveys, the WSM asked its member companies about the energy price brake. This showed that 49 percent of the participants had not applied for the brake at all, and another 10 percent had only applied for it in part. In addition to the fear of additional payments, the EBITDA criteria make the electricity price brake stop at company doors. 13.3 percent of respondents cannot assess whether they meet the requirements, and 12.2 percent do not. 21.1 percent consider the bureaucratic hurdles to be higher than the benefits. The expense bothers everyone, including applicants - a total of 66 percent gave scores of five and four here. "This is the opposite of what the German government had promised: a simple, quickly effective instrument," criticizes Holger Ade, head of economic and energy policy at WSM.
The effectiveness of the energy price brake was also limited, he said: 37 percent of respondents gave it a five, while another 22 gave it a four. The price limit at which the brake is triggered is another problem. For one in three respondents, it does not take effect at all because their procurement prices, which are high by European standards, are nevertheless below the limit. "Medium-sized industries - in all their breadth and diversity - need tariffs that are fit for the future and competitive," emphasizes Holger Ade.