Electricity generation up 4 %

In the financial year that just came to a close, the RWE Group produced 224.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity–4 % more than in 2007. In-house generation and power purchases combined for 334.2 billion kWh. This was 3 % more than in fiscal 2007. In the year under review, 33 % of electricity generation was based on lignite, 28 % on hard coal, 22 % on nuclear, and 14 % on gas. Renewables’ share amounted to 2.4 %.

RWE Power contributed 180.3 billion kWh of the RWE Group’s total in-house electricity production; this represents a share of 80 %. This includes electricity generated from power plants not owned by RWE that we can deploy at our discretion on the basis of long-term agreements. RWE Power generated a little more electricity than in fiscal 2007. Nuclear output rose considerably, up more than 50 % year on year. This was primarily due to the improved availability of the Biblis nuclear power plant. Block A was offline from September 2006 to February 2008, and Block B from October 2006 to November 2007. RWE Power increased generation in its gas-fired power stations as well. Their generation output was up 14 % year on year because market conditions were favourable and less maintenance work was carried out than in 2007. In contrast, electricity production by our hard coal-fired power stations experienced a margin-driven decline of 22 % compared to the year-earlier level. We generated 3 % less electricity from lignite. This was largely due to an increase in maintenance work and unplanned outages resulting from boiler damage.

RWE npower generated 36.7 billion kWh of electricity–up 9 % year on year. In the UK, market conditions for our power plants were better than in 2007. As a result, RWE npower’s generation was up 19 % from hard coal and 3 % from gas.

RWE Innogy, our specialist for renewable energies, generated 4.0 billion kWh in the period under review. This production predominantly stems from capacity the company took over from RWE Power, RWE npower and RWE Energy.

RWE Energy contributed 3.1 billion kWh of the power produced by the RWE Group. This output is largely allocable to our German regional companies. It mainly consists of generation based on gas, hard coal and hydro power.

In addition to our in-house generation, we procure electricity from external suppliers. These purchases totalled 110.1 billion kWh and were therefore slightly higher than in 2007. This included electricity fed into RWE Energy’s grid by third parties, in accordance with the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG).