On Tuesday, Wien Energie put figures on the controversial futures transactions on the table. These should show that there was no speculation.
Wien. Is Wien Energie’s sudden liquidity requirement in the billions the result of crazy electricity markets or has the company also carried out dangerous speculative transactions? That was also the central question on day two after the financial problems became known, which is why the Court of Auditors intervened on Tuesday and declared that it wanted to check the background.
The assumption about possible speculation was fueled by a number from the financial report of Wiener Stadtwerke. According to this, the volume of sales futures transactions for electricity at the end of 2021 was 16.88 terawatt hours – about three times the annual production volume of 6.28 terawatt hours. In other words: With transactions of this magnitude, Wien Energie would have carried out so-called short sales, i.e. sold electricity that it cannot produce itself, and thus bet on falling prices. With the current price development, that would mean losses in the billions.