We turn energy into action
What drove EnBW in 2024 and how are we setting the course for the future? Our five members of the Board of Management give their answers.
As an integrated energy company, we understand every stage of the energy industry value chain.
Dr. Georg Stamatelopoulos: It was an eventful and also very important year for EnBW. We made progress in all three strategic business fields and are planning further investment to transform the energy system. To be able to do this successfully, we are currently holding discussions with our shareholders about a possible capital increase. One thing that is keeping me very busy at the moment is considering how we can give equal consideration to the issues of affordability, security of supply and climate protection in future.
Dr. Georg Stamatelopoulos: As an integrated energy company, we understand every stage of the energy industry value chain. This enables us to develop innovative and efficient solutions and work on proposals in terms of how we could potentially reduce overall system costs with respect to, for example, overhead transmission lines for the expansion of the transmission grid or combining storage and generation systems at our solar parks. By extending our current strategy up to 2030, we now have a clear roadmap for how we will continue to push forward the restructuring of the energy system and exploit any synergies to the maximum.
Major projects must be able to deliver competitive returns, especially in comparison to other investment opportunities globally.
Thomas Kusterer: Earnings developed as we thought they would in 2024. As expected, we are now seeing prices normalize on the wholesale markets after they reached extraordinary levels and this has had an influence on our Group operating result. Thanks to our robust, integrated approach, we managed to simultaneously achieve solid results in all business fields.
Thomas Kusterer: To be able to finance the huge need for investment, it is vital that we maintain our good access to the capital market. This will be highly dependent on stable regulatory and legal framework conditions that we can rely on over the long term. Major projects must be able to deliver competitive returns, especially in comparison to other investment opportunities globally. We will not be able to successfully transform our energy system without the support of a broad multinational cohort of investors who are willing to invest in the energy infrastructure in Germany.
It is not enough for us to secure the right talent, we also want to retain our skilled workers over the long term.
Colette Rückert-Hennen: There is huge competition for skilled workers on the market and this is something we are also having to deal with at EnBW. Given the demographic change and growth, we will need to fill around 7,800 positions by 2027 and, although I am certainly not underestimating the challenge, I am confident that we are well positioned to overcome it. We are training many young people ourselves in our apprenticeships and dual study programs and we offer our employees a broad range of training courses and opportunities to acquire new qualifications. Our LernWerk learning platform is particularly worthy of mention in this context and has more than 3,000 training opportunities for employees. Our recruitment activities are also in full swing and we were able to fill around 3,500 positions across the Group in 2024.
Colette Rückert-Hennen:Employees at EnBW are able to actively shape the energy system of the future and many of them find that this is a strong motivation to work here. We also offer an attractive overall package of a secure job, fair pay and flexible working practices, where operational considerations allow. It is not enough for us to secure the right talent, we also want to retain our skilled workers over the long term.
Our fuel switch power plants and storage systems deliver precisely what we need as a partner for renewable energies: flexibly dispatchable output.
Peter Heydecker: The fact that we are developing a project of this scale demonstrates once again that our offshore team has the expertise to realize these types of projects cost-efficiently. We installed all 64 foundations in just three months in 2024 and will start installing the wind turbines out at sea early this year. The entire wind farm is due to be placed into operation by the end of 2025. EnBW He Dreiht is one of the first offshore wind farms to be built without state funding. We are relying on power purchase agreements concluded with industrial customers as part of this project, which, at the same time, helps them to achieve their own climate change mitigation targets.
Peter Heydecker: We are celebrating the commissioning of our fuel switch power plant in Stuttgart-Münster on 11 April, and our other power plants in Altbach/Deizisau and Heilbronn will follow. In combination with our pumped and battery storage systems, they will deliver precisely what we need as a partner for renewable energies: flexibly dispatchable output. These technologies will play an important role in the energy system of the future, which is why we are expanding both our pumped storage facility in Forbach and also our battery storage system portfolio.
We are still waiting for pragmatic regulations at an EU level that will promote the ramp-up of a hydrogen market.
Dirk Güsewell: We made some important progress in 2024: Our subsidiary TransnetBW placed the converter for the ULTRANET project into operation at the end of the year and started constructing the transmission lines for the SuedLink project, while work on the expansion of the distribution grid also continues at full speed. Another positive development was approval for the construction of the nationwide hydrogen core network. However, we are still waiting for pragmatic regulations at an EU level that will promote the ramp-up of a hydrogen market.
Dirk Güsewell: The rollout of smart meters picked up pace across Germany in 2024 but is still moving slowly. We would like to see things run more quickly so that our customers can benefit from digitalization. Customers with a smart meter and our new “EnBW electricity dynamic” tariff can, for example, manage their own electricity consumption and costs themselves. We are also on track when it comes to e-mobility: We went well beyond the 6,000 fast-charging points mark in 2024 and connected more charging points to the grid than ever before in the second half of the year. We want to expand our fast-charging infrastructure to more than 20,000 fast-charging points by 2030 and consolidate our market share of around 20% in this sector.