Heat transition as a priority
Around half of the municipal utilities under financial pressure
06/12/2023, 12:10 am
Last summer’s energy crisis is still reverberating. These are the lowest values since the financial crisis: Only 44 percent of municipal utilities in Germany rate their prospects as “good” or “very good”. Almost half achieved a poorer result than in the previous year.
The expansion of renewable energies and the implementation of the heat transition are at the top of the list of priorities for the German public utilities. This is the result of a survey by the energy umbrella association BDEW and the consulting company EY, the results of which are available to the editorial network Germany (RND). According to this, nine out of ten companies name the expansion of renewable energy sources and the heat transition as their most important topics at the moment.
Almost half (48 percent) of municipal utilities posted lower earnings in 2022 than in the previous year. This depresses the mood: only 44 percent of the 100 companies surveyed rate their prospects as “good” or “very good”. This is the lowest value since the 2008/2009 financial crisis.
Increased pressure to transform?
EY expert Andreas Siebel speaks of increased pressure to transform in the areas of energy, mobility and heating. But BDEW boss Kerstin Andreae is optimistic: “Public utilities are ready to continue investing in energy transition technologies and to strengthen security of supply,” she told RND.
Andreae describes the municipal utilities as an indispensable player in municipal heat planning. In addition to heat pumps and district heating, gas-based systems that will be operated with renewable and decarbonized gases in the future are also an option, especially for the housing stock.
The survey also revealed that not even every third municipal utility (29 percent) has a real decarbonization strategy to expand climate-friendly solutions for customers and their own operations. A fifth has so far had nothing at all to do with this topic. A good half stated that they were in a “strategic process”.
EY expert Siebel warned: “Without decarbonization strategies, municipal utilities will not be able to do justice to their role as implementers of the energy transition on site.” Among other things, the development of new business models in the heat transition would become key fields of action in the coming years.