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The upheavals in the international energy sector shook the E-Werk Perg properly in the past financial year. Since the company, which is owned by the municipality of Perg, can only cover 20 percent of the electricity it supplies from its own production, it was hit hard by the sharply rising market prices. The operating result, which in recent years was mostly around 600,000 euros and enabled the municipality to make lucrative deductions for the budget, collapsed to around 85,000 euros.
As a reaction to this, consumer prices were raised to 52 cents net per kilowatt hour at the beginning of the year. This means that existing customers pay up to twice what other electricity suppliers currently charge their regular customers. On Tuesday, this was reason enough in the municipal council to critically question the approach of the company’s Elektrizitätswerk Perg GmbH on the occasion of the approval of the budget estimate for 2023 and the investment plan of Elektrizitätswerk Perg GmbH.
Green City Councilor Franz Baumann warned of a very dangerous situation in which the E-Werk had gotten itself into: “There are many angry regular customers. There is a great danger that customers will run away from the company in droves.” He therefore recommends bringing in an external specialist as a consultant for the management. SP local councilor Michael Harrucksteiner also referred to the sharp price increase: “The numbers are not good, you have to be honest. We have one of the most expensive electricity suppliers in the country. According to the tariff calculator from E-Control, I could currently purchase electricity for half the price charged by E-Werk Perg.” In this situation, politicians should also take the initiative. When approving the budget estimate, Harrucksteiner therefore submitted an additional application that the management should report to the city council on a monthly basis about the current developments and measures.
Mayor Toni Froschauer (VP) referred to the difficult market environment. The cost of purchasing electricity increased almost six-fold last year from EUR 3.2 million to EUR 17.5 million. In addition, the E-Werk is making great efforts to expand the grid in order to do justice to the increasing proportion of photovoltaic electricity in the grid. This year significantly more than one million euros will be invested. He has already taken up the suggestion of an external consultant: Josef Kurzmann, former board member of the Doka-Umdasch Group, supports the management as an expert. A price reduction is also already being worked on by customers. We will react as best we can to the wholesale prices, which are now falling again.
The municipal council also agreed to implement the SP parliamentary group’s proposal and to request a regular market report from the city council. The company, founded in 1909, was converted into a GmbH in 1999 in order to be able to act more independently of politics. About 7,000 customers in the communities of Perg, Münzbach, Windhaag, and parts of Allerheiligen and Schwertberg are currently supplied with 90 million kilowatt hours per year via a line network of almost 600 kilometers.
Source: Nachrichten
