Deregulation of the electricity markets - Viewpoint of Bayernwerk

In the long run, monopolies will not survive in the European Union (EU). Also the electricity supply industry is undergoing a transition to more competition, which is possible only if a fair and equitable legal framework is established. The compromise at which the EU Council of Ministers arrived on June 20, 1996 permits both the single-buyer system and third party access. In the future, there will be no more closed supply regions, and concession agreements will be invalid. The existing rule of identical electricity rates applying within a supply region will be impossible to uphold, as tighter cost calculations will entail price differences. The Bayernwerk utility urgently warns against applying short-term concepts when calculating the costs of energy conversion, and against abandoning a broad-based diversification of primary energies for seeming short-term cost benefits. The oil crises of the seventies ought to serve as a permanent warning in this respect. The utility, for this reason, also firmly advocates the use of nuclear power.