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The energy supplier Offenbach draws a positive balance despite Corona. In the next few years, the company plans to expand the high-voltage network and get out of coal by the end of the decade.
The many storms in February and March of last year helped the Offenbach energy supplier (EVO) to significantly increase its annual surplus. “Wind is an important business,” said EVO CEO Christoph Meier. In the financial year from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020, the company generated a surplus of 20.9 million euros. In the previous year it was 13.9 million euros.
“We are well positioned and differentiated. But the biggest positive effect was the wind. That brought us several million euros, ”explained Meier. And this despite the fact that sales in the manufacturing sector fell by five percent during the first lockdown. “We are in the black with green ideas,” he said.
The CEO cited the opening of the data center on the EVO site, which is operated 100 percent with electricity from renewable energies, as an example.
The “Rosskopf” wind farm near Jossgrund in the Main-Kinzig district was put into operation and the modernization of the waste-to-energy plant was completed in winter 2020. “In future, 80,000 tons of raw sewage sludge will be accepted there every year and burned after a drying process,” explained Günter Weiß, Chief Technology Officer. In total, EVO is investing around 250 million euros in ongoing projects.
The biggest project in the coming years for EVO will be the expansion of the high-voltage network in the city and in the Offenbach district. With numerous new residential areas, more e-mobility, and more home offices, the demand for electricity is also increasing accordingly. In five large construction projects, Weiß expects an investment volume of well over 100 million euros.
Meier emphasized that over the past 20 years, EVO had managed to reduce the use of coal in the thermal power station on the Nordring from 118,000 tons to around 68,000 tons last year. EVO is planning a complete phase-out of coal towards an economically and ecologically sensible alternative by the end of the decade. “We have already made it halfway,” said Meier.
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