RWE announces reorganisation; TSO to become more independent
RWE is fundamentally restructuring its supply and distribution business, the utility announced on Tuesday. By aligning the executive management of the RWE Group more closely to national markets, the company wants to attract new customers locally and expand its existing business, a statement read.
In Germany, the two regional subsidiaries, RWE Rhein Ruhr and RWE Westfalen Weser Ems, will be transformed into two companies – one for supply and one for distribution.
As a result, the role of the intermediate holding company, RWE Energy, will be discontinued. RWE Energy has been acting as RWE Group’s sales and grid company in mainland Europe. Together with subsidiaries and affiliates, RWE Energy supplies electricity and gas to 15.5m and 7.6m customers respectively. In 2007, sales totalled 168.3TWh of power and 258TWh of gas.
The two new supply and distribution companies will in the future report directly to the RWE Group – like all other German regional subsidiaries of the utility. The activities of RWE Energy will be allocated in part to the new units and in part to the RWE Group.
The company’s grid operator, RWE Transportnetz Strom, will be directly assigned to RWE Group. The aim is to reorganise its ultra high-voltage network operator into an Independent Transmission Operator (ITO) during the first half of 2009, RWE said. The company is to have its own staff performing all the necessary operational tasks. At each of RWE Group’s locations, there will be a consistent physical separation between the ITO and other RWE companies. As a company, RWE Transportnetz Strom will continue to be based in Dortmund.
“RWE is… offering proof that the independent transmission operator also desired by the German federal government stands for the maximum degree of independence, non-discriminatory access to the grid and transparency,” said RWE CEO Juergen Grossmann.
The utility’s structural reorganisation goes hand in hand with changes in personnel. The new supply unit will be headed by Stephan Kohler, who has been working as chief of the Berlin-based German Energy Agency, Dena.
Rolf-Martin Schmitz is to take responsibility for RWE’s German generation, distribution and supply businesses. He has been appointed as a member of the executive board.
Ulrich Jobs will be managing RWE’s operating businesses outside Germany, encompassing all activities in central and eastern Europe, and the division “Netherlands/Belgium” – provided the acquisition of Dutch utility Essent is successful (see EDEM 13.007). RWE npower in the UK, upstream unit RWE Dea and RWE Supply & Trading will also report to Jobs.
In addition, RWE is setting up the new RWE Technology unit, which is to oversee engineering activities for project development and implementation (new power plants). This unit also fall into Ulrich Jobs’ responsibility. KTV
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