Speaking at the German Industry 2022 conference, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the German economy is threatened with an “energy Lehman.” “There is a threat of the entire market falling over, in other words, a Lehman Brothers effect in the energy system,” he said. “At some point, the utilities will no longer supply the municipal utilities, the municipal utilities will no longer supply the downstream customers, and then you can imagine what will happen in Germany.”
He repeated the same thing at a press conference in Berlin: “As utilities accumulate losses because they are forced to cover high-priced volumes, there is a risk of spillover effects for local utilities and their customers, including consumers and businesses, Habeck said. “If this shortfall becomes so large that they can’t cope with it, the whole market is threatened with collapsing at some point. So a Lehman effect in the energy system.”
The head of the German Network Authority (Bundesnetzwerkagentur), an agency of Habeck’s Economics Ministry, warned that gas bills for heating households might double or triple in coming days.
