RWE eyes EnBW’s coal and natural gas plants – report

On the sidelines of its surprising and far-reaching deal with competitor E.ON, German utility RWE is mulling another major transaction - the purchase of utility EnBW's coal and gas plants, Jürgen Flauger writes for Handelsblatt. RWE CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz says he wants to make his company “a guarantor for the security and reliability of the energy supply.” Despite RWE’s decision to re-enter the renewables business by reintegrating the green power production capacity of its spin-off innogy, “Schmitz has not lost its faith in conventional power production,” Flauger says. If there is an opportunity to buy coal and gas plants, “we will use it,” Flauger quotes Schmitz as saying. According to Flauger, EnBW could provide this opportunity as CEO Frank Mastiaux has declared conventional power production “an obsolescent model.” Flauger says Schmitz is speculating that Germany will eventually opt for a capacity market model that pays power producers just for providing production capacity, as RWE has been struggling for years to operate its coal and natural gas plants at a profit.

Find the article in German here (paywall).

For background, read the CLEW dossier Utilities and the energy transition and the factsheet Germany’s largest utilities at a glance.