Europe’s energy industry has grown accustomed to constant change. Yet it has been rocked by a new shift that is both tectonic and Teutonic.

In Germany two of the sector’s biggest players are plotting a £38bn shake-up that could trigger aftershocks across the continent, including in the UK.

RWE and E.on last week set out plans for a complicated asset swap designed to rebuild international strength that has been sapped by Germany’s pro-renewable energy policies. The move tears at the heart of one of the UK’s biggest energy deals since privatisation, however, and could spell trouble for the rest of Britain’s big players as well.