logo
Article

German energy market a disaster, says EDF chief

The Financial Times|Pilita Clark|October 10, 2014
GermanyEnergy Policy

Germany as a whole was a huge country which was doing very well, especially in the auto sector, said Henri Proglio, EDF’s chairman and chief executive. “But when it comes to energy they are in a disaster,” he told reporters in London. “The two major companies, Eon and RWE are under huge pressure. One is more or less dead, the other is in a very difficult situation.”


Germany’s energy market is a “disaster” and one of its two biggest power companies is “more or less dead”, the head of the French energy group, EDF, said on Wednesday.

Germany as a whole was a huge country which was doing very well, especially in the auto sector, said Henri Proglio, EDF’s chairman and chief executive.

“But when it comes to energy they are in a disaster,” he told reporters in London. “The two major companies, Eon and RWE are under huge pressure. One is more or less dead, the other is in a very difficult situation.”

Eon declined to comment while RWE was not immediately available for comment.

German power companies have been struggling with plunging profits as the country shifts its electricity supply away from …

... more [truncated due to possible copyright]

Germany’s energy market is a “disaster” and one of its two biggest power companies is “more or less dead”, the head of the French energy group, EDF, said on Wednesday.

Germany as a whole was a huge country which was doing very well, especially in the auto sector, said Henri Proglio, EDF’s chairman and chief executive.

“But when it comes to energy they are in a disaster,” he told reporters in London. “The two major companies, Eon and RWE are under huge pressure. One is more or less dead, the other is in a very difficult situation.”

Eon declined to comment while RWE was not immediately available for comment.

German power companies have been struggling with plunging profits as the country shifts its electricity supply away from conventional sources to renewable energy. The shift, know in German as the Energiewende became more urgent when Angela Merkel, the chancellor, accelerated the phase-out of nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Germany’s nuclear switch-off has been a source of friction with France which depends on atomic plants for the bulk of its electricity needs and has, through EDF, spearheaded, the building of new nuclear plants elsewhere in Europe, including the UK.

France has been attacked, including from across the Rhine, for its weak economy, parlous public finances and declining competitiveness.

Mr Proglio was responding to a question about France’s business environment after comments by Andy Street, managing director of British retailer, John Lewis, who described France as “finished” as a country and said the Gare du Nord station in Paris was the “squalor pit of Europe”.

The EDF chief said it was “not a brilliant situation” in France, though the picture was mixed. “It’s a remarkable country when it comes to aerospace,” he said. “It’s number one in the world” But he conceded that there were clearly some problems.

“It’s very difficult to make a judgment about France in a few minutes. It’s a country where you have some very good and some very bad examples. We have to force the country to make some improvements in public overheads to drive more investments,” he said.

The same could be said of Germany, he added, comparing the success of the auto industry to the weakness of its energy sector which is grappling with the effects of the switch to renewables.

Wind and solar power, which have preferential access to the power grid in Germany, have squeezed the margins of conventional power generators such as RWE and Eon.

RWE announced a 62 per cent fall in profit in August and said it planned to shut down more power stations. Germany’s second-biggest utility by market value blamed its situation on the expansion of renewable energy, which it said had left many of its power stations unable to cover their operating costs.

Eon posted a 20 per cent fall in profits the same month, explaining the expansion of clean energy was the main cause of a decline in the price for German baseload power.

Hefty energy surcharges to help pay for the transition to renewables have raised costs for customers and led some German companies to complain of an erosion of international competitiveness.


Source:http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/…

Share this post
Follow Us
RSS:XMLAtomJSON
Donate
Donate
Stay Updated

We respect your privacy and never share your contact information. | LEGAL NOTICES

Contact Us

WindAction.org
Lisa Linowes, Executive Director
phone: 603.838.6588

Email contact

General Copyright Statement: Most of the sourced material posted to WindAction.org is posted according to the Fair Use doctrine of copyright law for non-commercial news reporting, education and discussion purposes. Some articles we only show excerpts, and provide links to the original published material. Any article will be removed by request from copyright owner, please send takedown requests to: info@windaction.org

© 2024 INDUSTRIAL WIND ACTION GROUP CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WEBSITE GENEROUSLY DONATED BY PARKERHILL TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION