The cabinet is now investigating the idea of Wifo boss Gabriel Felbermayr, who only wants to set a price ceiling for a standard amount of electricity consumed. Under this plan, anything additionally consumed must be charged according to the market price. Incidentally, we are quite economical when it comes to gas consumption.
Instead of artificially and very expensively lowering the market price through state subsidies, each household could get a standard amount of electricity or gas for cheap. Only what you use more, is then considerably more expensive. The cabinet is now considering this proposal from Wifo boss Gabriel Felbermayr after pressure to introduce a price cap increases.
Incentive to save energy
This solution has two advantages: the consumer is immediately relieved and there is also a clear incentive to save energy. Felbermayr: “The price signals would be because energy is scarce and expensive.” Furthermore, energy subsidized with a lot of tax money would be prevented from being sold abroad.
The gas supply problem is acute. Our storage tanks are currently almost 46 percent full, which is the highest EU value after Latvia (91 percent). Moreover, we are quite efficient when it comes to consumption: we only need 23.2 cubic meters of gas for every 1,000 euros of economic return. That is a lot less than in other industrialized countries (see graph above), as Marcel Göttert of Agenda Austria knows: “Thanks to hydropower, we need less gas to generate electricity and the companies are economical with energy.”
Source: Krone
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