Berliners failed narrowly on Sunday to back a referendum to take over the city's privatised electricity network.

The push by the Berlin Energy Table, backed by the Left and Green parties, collected signatures from 7 per cent of eligible voters to get the measure on the ballot paper.

Its support had been boosted by the rising cost of energy and the insistence of Swedish privateer Vattenfall on using dirty brown coal to make 80 per cent of its electricity.

Swedish state-owned firm Vattenfall was set up a century ago to run that country's extensive hydroelectric plants.

It has expanded in recent years, acquiring businesses including nuclear and coal facilities in other countries.

While 722,365 Berliners - 83 per cent of those voting on Sunday - backed the public ownership proposal, the low turnout of 29.1 per cent meant that just 24.1 per cent of the eligible voters registered their support.

This fell below the 25 per cent necessary for success.

The city's ruling "red-black" coalition of the Social Democratic and Christian Democratic parties had opposed the proposal, claiming it would be too expensive, especially following the city's previous decision to take back its water company.

It had made every effort to reduce turnout by refusing campaigners' request to hold the referendum in September, at the same time as the general election.

The Berlin senate also claimed to have an alternative plan for a public energy grid, although this falls well short of municipalisation.

Hamburg voted recently to take back its electricity grid and Berlin had been expected to do likewise. Opinion polls showed 60 per cent support for municipal ownership.

Paradoxically, Christian Democrat-run cities Frankfurt and Munich fvoted decisively against privatisation of power in the first place.

Sunday's decision means that Vattenfall will give the green light to plans to extend its colossal opencast brown coal mine in Lausitz, which has already destroyed dozens of villages and will now spell the end for Proschim, near the Polish border.