“RWE, E.ON and Co: No miraculous fresh start”

The first annual presentation of balance sheet figures by German utilities RWE and E.ON, as well as by their spin-offs innogy and Uniper, has dealt a heavy blow to aspirations that the split would allow the battered companies a fresh start, Ralf Köpke writes in an opinion piece for Energie & Management. “The energy-giants have shrunk and yesterday’s problems remain tomorrow’s problems,” he writes. Out of the four companies, only innogy presented satisfying profits, while the others incurred billions of euros in losses. “It has been less than a decade that E.ON, RWE and Co. decried renewable energies as permanent subsidy-recipients,” Köpke writes. Now they reiterated their calls for capacity management of fossil power plants, “dressing it up as a contribution to supply security, while in reality it’s nothing more than subsidies”, he explains.

Read the commentary in German here.

For background, see the CLEW dossier Utilities and the energy transition.