It's muddying the water. The hikes are for the so called "Grundversorgung" where providers are required by law to provide you with electricity (and gas) basical

It's muddying the water. The hikes are for the so called "Grundversorgung" where providers are required by law to provide you with electricity (and gas) basically without a contract. For instance my local provider hiked prices to 42-43 cents for regular customers at end of last year and "Grundversorgung" to 80 cents. I noticed various nuclear lobbyists were very active spreading false news in recent days, these people have no morals. Also the prices in Germany vary between hundreds of providers, you can get electricity from any one of them. They supply it by purchasing electricity on the market, some had long term contracts to weather the storm last year, some didn't and hiked prices early, some went bankrupt etc. The problem right now often is that it's difficult to switch contracts - my local provider is not taking on new customers, my guess because they are losing money and hoping the situation will improve.