We focus our strategy on Germany–our largest market–as well as on the UK, the Benelux countries, Central and South Eastern Europe, Turkey and Russia.
- Germany: Modernizing our power plant portfolio remains our top priority. But we will wait for the EU resolutions concerning the December 2008 climate package to be translated into national law. It seems likely that lignite and hard coal-fired generation will be disadvantaged. We will step up our electricity generation from renewables considerably. At the same time, we are strengthening our competitive position in the end-customer business with new products (e.g., fixed-price, three-year contracts) and new sales channels (e.g., on the Internet through our subsidiary eprimo).
- UK: In addition to the end-customer business, our focus in this market lies on increasing our share of the generation market. This market is highly attractive to operators of modern power plants and RWE npower has a strong supply position. New combined cycle gas turbine power stations with low CO2 emissions, offshore wind farms and–in the long term–nuclear power plants are the focal points.
- Benelux: So far, our activities in the Netherlands have aimed to achieve a strong, organically grown market position in the end-customer business and to build generation capacity. The planned acquisition of the energy utility Essent, which also operates its own power plants, will help us make considerable progress in both these areas.
- Central and South Eastern Europe: Our objective in this region is to build a well-balanced, low CO2-emitting generation portfolio. In Central Eastern Europe, we also concentrate on optimizing the grid business, increasing gas storage capacity, and expanding sales.
- Turkey and Russia: These fast-growing markets provide opportunities at various stages of the electricity value chain. In Turkey, this also applies to the gas business. In addition to organic growth, the Turkish government’s privatization plans will be decisive for the market’s continued development. In principle, the Russian market is also attractive to RWE. However, we will take particular care to weigh the opportunities and risks in this country.
