Location, location, energy

It is no secret that the high electricity and gas costs are a disadvantage for companies in Germany: among other things, the DIHK shows that industrial companies in particular are increasingly relocating or wanting to reduce their production in Germany - as an explicit reaction to energy policy. Depending on the segment, this has now reached both a majority and a peak: according to the DIHK, 6 out of 10 large industrial companies with more than 500 employees are currently considering relocating or scaling back.

Three years is not long enough

The German government now wants to relieve industry of around 4 billion euros in electricity costs - spread over three years. However, economists do not consider this to be long enough: three years is insignificant in the strategic planning of companies. If we look at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and a forecast from this year, for example, even a glance into the more distant future shows that planning certainty will continue to decrease until 2030 because electricity prices will become much more volatile than we know them from the past. And even a five-year horizon is unlikely to be sufficient for strategic planning for many companies.

Own supply and PPAs

It seems that what used to be location, location, location when choosing a location is now and will increasingly be location, location, energy (cost) security. At the very least, companies are calling on politicians to reduce taxes and levies on the price of electricity - but also to improve the framework conditions for self-supply and direct supply contracts.

Conversion has been possible for a long time

In our opinion, politics is only needed to a limited extent for the latter points in particular: Within the existing legal framework, we have repeatedly successfully designed and supported the switch to self-supply as well as direct supply contracts (PPAs, Power Purchase Agreements) for our customers.