At the 2021 digital general meeting, the Hesse regional group of the Association of Municipal Enterprises confirmed Jens Schmidt as a member of the SWG Executive Board.
Jens Schmidt, Commercial Director of Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG), remains a member of the Executive Board of the Hesse regional group of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU LH). The representatives present confirmed him in office with a large majority. This year, the general meeting was held digitally due to the coronavirus. Of course, the focus was not only on the elections to the Executive Board, but above all on key energy industry topics. Hesse's Minister of Economics and Energy, Tarek Al-Wazir, also took part in the lively discussion.
"We agreed that the municipal companies in Hesse have proven to be an anchor of stability, especially during the pandemic," summarised Jens Schmidt. However, the 158 energy and water supply companies organised in the VKU LH need reliable framework conditions in order to be able to carry out their important work for public services. This is precisely what the regional group is advocating.
Many challenges
In addition to the pandemic, digitalisation and demographic change - challenges that all companies in this country have to face - energy and water suppliers are currently focusing on issues relating to the energy transition and climate change. For example, the VKU LH emphasised its call to push ahead with the expansion of wind energy. According to the members, the replacement of old turbines with new, significantly more efficient systems plays a decisive role in this. Experts speak of repowering. "We would like to see politicians not impose the same strict requirements on sites as for completely new projects and for simplified authorisation procedures to be used," says Jens Schmidt, explaining the position of VKU LH.
Municipal companies also need the support of politicians to safeguard drinking water supplies. This is because the expected increase in droughts will lead to increased competition for the utilisation of water resources. "This is precisely what makes it necessary for politicians to enshrine the priority of public drinking water supply in law," Jens Schmidt agrees with his colleagues from VKU LH.
Strong economic engine
The VKU Hesse regional group has 158 member companies with over 25,000 employees. Together, these companies invest more than 1.1 billion euros per year. Their total turnover in 2019 was around 16 billion euros.