The electricity grid in Berlin could be returned to public hands when Berliners vote in a referendum on Sunday. <br /><br />It follows a campaign by the “Berliner Energietisch”, backed by the Green Party to bring the grid back under civic ownership.<br /><br />Campaigners want to found a new power utility that generates renewable energy locally.<br /><br />Activists say they also want to see the millions of euros profit made by owners, Swedish energy giant Vattenfall, returned to the city.<br /><br />Berlin Green Party leader, Daniel Wesener, said: “We mainly don’t want the money to go to the private sector, in this case Vattenfall, but we want it to go back, in the future, to Berlin citizens”.<br /><br />To succeed, they will need to get the backing of at least a quarter of the city’s voters. <br /><br />There is a precedent. Last September, people in Hamburg voted to return Vattenfall’s grid to the public. <br /><br />Recent polls showed 60 percent of Berliners would vote yes.
