Towns and cities are reclaiming control over their electricity and gas supplies. Utility companies across Germany were privatised over the past few decades, but many municipalities don’t want supplies to be controlled by large corporations any longer.Seven small municipalities near Lake Constance are leading the battle: they banded together to found their own utility company. And they scored a major victory when they bought back their gas and power infrastructure from the utility giant Energie Baden-Württemberg. Carmen Meyer reports on the winds of change in the utilities industry.