Giessen. Stadtwerke Gießen presented a positive result for the 2010 financial year at its annual press conference on 2 September. At Stadtwerke Gießen AG, the bottom line was a clear plus of 3 million euros, while the SWG Group's balance sheet showed a surplus of 3.4 million euros. SWG increased its reserves by around 1.45 million euros. The regional energy supplier is distributing 1.5 million euros to the city of Giessen as profit. This was explained jointly by Dr Volker Kölb, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and the two Management Board members Manfred Siekmann and Reinhard Paul.
The positive annual result is due, among other things, to increased sales of electricity and heat. Sales of natural gas also increased. "However, because we want to continue to offer stable prices despite rising procurement costs, our profit margin was lower than in 2009," explains SWG CEO Manfred Siekmann. For a regionally rooted energy supplier and service provider like Stadtwerke, it is not the quick profit that counts. "The fact that this strategy and our work for the region are paying off is demonstrated not least by the growing number of customers in our core business," says Manfred Siekmann. SWG intends to continue to rely on its successful model in the future: Local customer service, increasing value creation in the city and region and investing in modern technologies, such as renewable electricity and heat generation.
The right path has already been taken
Innovative solutions are needed to generate decentralised energy, especially now that the rapid nuclear phase-out has been decided. "We already embarked on this path a few years ago. The current challenges are not new territory for us," explains Reinhard Paul, Technical Director of SWG. The TREA heating plant has been feeding into the Giessen heating network since April 2010. A state-of-the-art filter system significantly reduces emissions of pollutants: they are more than 95 per cent below the limit value. "We have already gained a great deal of experience in renewable heat supply in recent years, from which we are now benefiting. As the requirements in terms of energy supply will increase, we want to work closely with science and research on challenging projects. Giessen offers us the best conditions for this," explains Reinhard Paul. Together with the Technical University of Central Hesse, SWG wants to increase the efficiency of the biogas plant in Großen-Buseck, in which the municipal utility holds a 51 per cent stake. SWG is also cooperating with other regional energy companies in order to pool expertise and capacities. In July 2010, they joined forces with four other utilities to form a sales company.
Another special feature of 2010 was the transfer of the water supply to the municipal Mittelhessische Wasserwerke. "In this way, the economic viability of the water supply in Giessen and the surrounding area can be ensured," explains Dr Volker Kölb. If the supply had continued to be organised under private law, there would have been the threat of unjustified price orders from the State Cartel Office. The possible consequence: considerable losses for SWG and thus for the city of Giessen.
"The model of the classic electricity, gas and water supplier no longer applies today anyway," emphasises Reinhard Paul. Since 2009, the municipal utilities have also increasingly focussed on their role as an energy service provider. The "En5" project offers business customers and local authorities products that can be used to significantly improve energy efficiency. In 2010 alone, sales totalled almost 13 million kilowatt hours. In order to increase customers' energy efficiency, the municipal utilities have modernised numerous heating systems and in some cases installed modern combined heat and power plants.
Not standing still
The expansion of combined heat and power (CHP) will also be part of the strategy in the coming years. "In this way, we are driving forward decentralised electricity generation - an important step in view of the rapid nuclear phase-out," explains Reinhard Paul.
SWG sees the numerous innovations in the energy industry as a challenge for the future: the constant further development of SWG's energy concepts is required. In the foreseeable future, this will include not only the expansion of the company's own plants, as subsidised by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), but also an increased participation in other energy generation plants based on renewable sources.
Stadtwerke Gießen is also continuing to expand its services for energy customers: Construction work is currently underway on the new infoCentre on the market square. From the end of 2012, customers will receive expert answers to their energy-related questions there.