SWG presents business figures for 2024
Stadtwerke Gießen looks back on a successful financial year and announces investments
Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) has successfully concluded the 2024 financial year. Its recently published balance sheet shows a profit of 17.1 million euros. "We are very satisfied with the result," said Andreas Hergaß, Commercial Director of SWG, commenting on the annual financial statements. He is not only referring to the good figures themselves, but above all to the way in which they were achieved. It was indeed possible to fully fulfil the budget planning. The same applies to the operational targets. "We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our employees for their commitment. They have once again proven to be a committed and competent team that we can rely on," adds Matthias Funk, Chief Technical Officer of SWG. The result was 0.2 million euros higher than in the previous year.
The good result is due to various one-off effects. First and foremost, the reversal of provisions that SWG had recognised for the water cartel proceedings. The legal dispute with the state of Hesse ended in October 2024 with a settlement that was acceptable to both sides
Profits at the right time
SWG is distributing €2.5 million of the net profit as a dividend to its owner, the city of Giessen. SWG is investing the remaining 14.6 million euros in the reorganisation of its energy supply - in comparable projects such as the iKWK PowerLahn plant. iKWK stands for innovative combined heat and power generation. The system consists of three generation components: three river water heat pumps (i-component), two combined heat and power plants (CHP) and a power-to-heat module. In future, the river water heat pumps will extract enough heat energy from the Lahnwasser to heat 3,900 homes. The two CHP units generate highly efficient heat and electricity in a single process and the power-to-heat module converts electricity directly into heat. This makes it possible to avoid around 10,000 tonnesof CO2 emissions every year. "We are very grateful that these retained profits will enable us to continue to drive forward the energy transition in Giessen and the region at the specified pace," summarises Andreas Hergaß.
Mayor and SWG Supervisory Board Chairman Alexander Wright also expressed his satisfaction with SWG's business results: "SWG is a rock-solid municipal utility that not only operates successfully, but also assumes responsibility for an entire region." Unlike many comparable competitors, SWG does not participate in large-scale projects such as wind farms anywhere in Germany. Instead, they invest in various larger and smaller projects in Giessen and the neighbouring municipalities. The positive effect of this is that the added value of the renewable generation plants that are built here remains in the region. All the towns and municipalities in which SWG is active benefit from this.
Keyword rock solid: SWG's equity ratio is now around 44 per cent, which is well above the industry average. This figure shows that SWG is particularly trustworthy with banks. This means that it is easier for SWG to obtain loans. A fact that opens up significantly more options for those responsible in Lahnstrasse when it comes to far-reaching decisions for the energy future of Giessen and the region.