Baden-Württemberg regional energy companies invest in EnBW's onshore windfarms
Karlsruhe. Yesterday twelve regional energy companies from Baden-Württemberg signed agreements to invest in onshore windfarms owned by EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG. These wind power plant generate 156 megawatts of total output and are located at 17 sites across Germany. Together, these regional companies – eleven municipal utilities and a regional energy service provider – have acquired an approximately 20 percent share in the windfarm portfolio.
"Municipal utilities are our partners. Together with them, we aim to structure the Energiewende on the basis of partnership cooperation models. Which is why we are very pleased that twelve regional energy companies from Baden-Württemberg have opted for our investment offer. Not least, they are thereby also demonstrating their trust and confidence in our company," notes Thomas Kusterer, EnBW's CFO.
The cooperation model offers benefits to both parties. The wind power plants are already in operation, which relieves the municipal utilities of planning and con-struction risks, and allows the wind farms' technical and financial performance to be easily evaluated. The plants are located in different regions, and have been sourced from various well-known European manufacturers, which provides good risk distribution to the assets.
The municipal utilities are also concluding a service and management agreement with EnBW. EnBW will be responsible for service and maintenance, commercial and technical operational management, remote monitoring, direct marketing, as well as infrastructure maintenance at a fixed price over a long operating period. Based on this agreement, EnBW assumes significant risks such as large-scale repairs.
This investment by municipal utilities gives EnBW additional financial headroom to develop and set up further windfarm projects. It also broadens collaboration with the companies that are participating and investing.
This investment offer is open to other partners. EnBW is already conducting dis-cussions with further potential investors.
Participating municipal utilities:
Alb-E-Werk
Stadtwerke Giengen
Stadtwerke Karlsruhe
ODR
Stadtwerke Sachsenheim
Stadtwerke Schramberg
Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Gmünd
Stadtwerke Sindelfingen
Stadtwerke Sinsheim
SUEnergie
Stadtwerke Weinheim
as well as a further municipal utility whose boards have yet to reach a decision.
Further information about EnBW commitment to the wind farm area are available on the website at www.enbw.com/windkraft.