RWE Group

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

Introduction

RWE is one of Europe’s five leading electricity and gas companies and is the No. 1 power producer in Germany, No. 2 in the Netherlands and No. 3 in the UK. The company is also expanding in Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe.

RWE has 72,000 employees; it supplies almost 17 million customers with electricity and nearly 8 million customers with gas. In the financial year 2011-12 the company generated just below €52 billion in revenue. RWE says it is one of Europe’s biggest investors in offshore wind farms. RWE Group had an electricity generating capacity of 49.2GW in the financial year 2011-12 generating 205.7 billion kWh.

Seven divisions

RWE Group is divided into seven main divisions based on geographic and functional criteria:

RWE Germany: including RWE Power, Germany’s largest electricity generator, which generates electricity mainly from coal, gas and nuclear fuel. Lignite is produced by RWE Power through in-house mining activities; also including RWE Deutschland which oversees sales and distribution network operations.

Netherlands/Belgium: By acquiring Essent with effect from 30 September 2009, RWE has become a leading energy utility in the Benelux region. Essent generates electricity from gas, hard coal and biomass and holds a minority stake in Borssele, the only nuclear power station in the Netherlands.

RWE npower: Is the UK’s third largest energy utility. The company generates electricity from gas, hard coal, oil and biomass. Furthermore, RWE npower sells electricity and gas to end-customers.

RWE East: This division contains companies in Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey.

RWE Innogy: This division specialises in electricity and heat production from renewable sources.

RWE Dea: This division produces gas and oil, focusing on Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway and Egypt.

RWE Supply & Trading: This division is responsible for our energy trading activities and most of our gas midstream business. Furthermore, the division supplies major German industrial and corporate customers with electricity and gas.

Nuclear operator

RWE generated 34.3 billion KWh of electricity from nuclear power stations in the financial year 2011-12, compared with 45.2 the year before. All the nuclear stations are in Germany.

RWE Power has been operating nuclear power stations since the beginning of the 1960s. It owns the Biblis nuclear power plant, which is home to two PWRs [Biblis A – 1167MW opened in 1974 and Biblis B – 1240MW opened in 1976]. Both these reactors were shut after the March 2011 Fukushima accident.

RWE also owns 87.5% of the Emsland nuclear power station (the other 12.5% is owned by Eon) which has a 1329MW PWR which opened in 1988. Under the German nuclear phase-out Emsland is due to close in 2022.

Finally RWE owns 75% of the Gundremmingen nuclear power facility (25% Eon) which houses 2 BWRs (Gundremmingen B – 1284MW and Gundremmingen C – 1288MW – commercial operation started in 1984 and 1985 respectively). Under the German phase-out these reactors are due to close in 2017 and 2021 respectively.

Altogether this gives RWE an installed nuclear capacity of some 3901MW.

The disposal of radioactive waste (low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste) and the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel (high-level radioactive waste) are overseen and controlled by the relevant regulatory authorities. Radioactive by-products are taken to authorised interim storage facilities. Spent fuel rods generally spend several years in the power station’s own spent fuel pool and are then stored in a “castor” storage container on the power station premises, pending the provision of an authorised final repository.

New nukes

In February 2007, Eon AND RWE, were reported to be on the point of striking a deal with Westinghouse, to work together on Britain’s next generation of nuclear power stations. According to internal documents seen by the Business Magazine, the three companies are pushing to finalise an agreement before the publication of the Government’s energy white paper. The combined approach will be the first time all three power companies have come together to work on a project and is an indication of the role consortia could play in the construction of the next generation of UK power stations. As part of the agreement, the companies will submit a joint application for a licence for Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor design, which will cost as much as £2bn ($3.9bn, E3bn) each to build. The deal could then be extended to include joint applications for a licence for a particular site and eventually stretch to constructing a new power plant in a consortium. The white paper is expected to trigger licence applications from the world’s leading nuclear power plant designers: France’s Areva, which designs the European pressurised reactor; Westinghouse; GE Energy; and Atomic Energy Canada Ltd.

However Westinghouse said the report that it had formed a consortium with RWE and Eon was merely speculation. The Company said it was involved in talks "with all utilities interested in new European nuclear construction".

UK expansion plans

In the UK, RWE npower is planning to build two new Combined Cycles Gas Turbine plants at Pembroke and Staythorpe (Nottinghamshire). The Company also plans to invest £100m in three new wind farms with a capacity of around 100MW. But if the government gives the go-ahead to new nuclear plants and there is "social acceptance" it could get involved in new nuclear build in the UK. Rumours that RWE might try to buy Scottish and Southern Energy, however, have been denied.

The Company itself has been the subject of takeover speculation with Gazprom, the Russia Gas group seen as a possible predator. The company is seeking to tap into privatisation programmes as they emerge in Eastern European countries including Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

RWE is a member of the European Atomic Forum (Foratom)