2008 I 2009 Sustainability Report - Econsense

In the gas business area, we are stepping up
our activities in the midstream segment - in
other words, our efforts are aimed at achieving
direct access to the procurement market
and to gas storage and gas trading. The creation
of EnBW Gas Midstream GmbH in December
2008 is a first important step in this
direction.
EnBW has strong roots in the German state
of Baden-Württemberg, where the overwhelming
majority of our 6 million or so
customers live. The acquisition of a 26-percent
stake in EWE AG in 2009 strengthens
EnBW's position in the German energy market.
The strategic partnership with Borusan
Holding in Turkey we entered into in 2009
will allow us to work together to build up
generating capacity for wind energy and hydroelectric
power in the coming years. During
the second half of 2009, Borusan and
EnBW built and started up wind energy towers
with an installed capacity of 21 MW. They
are part of the "Banchirma" wind energy
farm, which will be expanded to produce a
total output of 60 MW in the coming
months.
8
Market compatibility
and competitiveness
Our goals are to make the energy debate
more "factual" and to promote the equal
weighting of supply reliability, cost efficiency
and environmental compatibility in the
field of energy policy.
As a result of the far-reaching changes in
the context within which the energy industry
operates, competition is becoming increasingly
fierce in all segments, while customer
expectations in the area of products,
advisory services and service standards are
growing all the time. However, all these factors
together also spell major opportunities
for the creation of new, high-value business
fields. We offer our customers more than
"just" energy. The introduction of the intelligent
electricity meter is an excellent example
of this. We are the first German energy
supply company to offer its customers
this service in the form of a series-manufactured
product. EnBW's "Intelligenter
Stromzähler®" renders electricity consumption
transparent and turns the customer
into his or her own personal "energy
manager". In this way, EnBW provides its
customers with a tool to increase the efficiency
with which they use energy, helping
them to save costs and to "do their bit" for
climate protection.
The growing share of renewable forms of
energy makes the management of the electricity
networks more complex and more
expensive. We service, modernise and optimise
our networks and generating facilities
on an ongoing basis to ensure the reliable
supply of energy to our customers. At the
same time, we also actively promote the in-
tegration of energy technology with information
and communication technologies,
creating new solutions for the optimisation
of the cost efficiency, environmental compatibility
and supply reliability of electricity.
The intelligent electricity meter plays a
key role in the intelligent network control
concept. EnBW is already testing this intelligent
integration of electricity generation,
distribution and consumption today in a
model region in Baden-Württemberg (Minimum
Emission Region - MeRegio).
Also see p. 27 et seq.
All over Germany, we work with our industrial
customers to optimise energy processes,
sometimes achieving savings of up to
20%. We support the efforts of the municipalities
with electricity products as well as a
wide range of services – and the high-level
expertise of EnBW in the implementation of
energy efficiency measures is proving to be
an increasingly important competitive advantage.
Each of the various EnBW brands possesses
its own clearly defined performance profile
– which means we can provide tailored
products and tailored services to suit the
needs of every customer.
EnBW also makes a constant effort to organise
its own processes in a more sustainable
and efficient way and to generate potential
for synergy. The in-house "!mpuls" programme,
for example, promotes the ongoing
and systematic development of improvements
in all areas of the company. Our
partnership with EDF within the EDF Group
also enables us to achieve synergies
throughout the entire value added chain.