OREANDA-NEWS. July 06, 2012. The new E.ON business unit, E.ON Deutschland, officially starts its operations. Based in the German city of Essen, it has just under 100 employees and will manage and coordinate E.ON’s sales, network, and distributed-generation businesses across Germany.

Strong position in the German market

E.ON Deutschland’s network operators include seven regional utilities and E.ON Netz, which operates a high-voltage distribution system. Together, these eight companies operate nearly 500,000 kilometers of power lines and more than 70,000 kilo-meters of gas pipelines. They deliver energy to roughly 8 million households from the Baltic Sea to the Alps.

In distributed generation, E.ON Deutschland’s heating subsidiaries already operate more than 4,000 power and heat generating units. These include nearly 30 biomass-fired units and 400 cogeneration units, which range from small units to large combined-cycle gas turbines that supply industrial enterprises. This business gives E.ON a superb platform for further growth in distributed generation, which is helping to pro-pel the transformation of Germany’s energy system.

E.ON Vertrieb Deutschland is responsible for E.ON’s power and gas sales business in Germany. Annual sales of roughly 145 billion kilowatt-hours of power and 422 billion kilowatt-hours of gas make it Germany’s leading energy supplier. E.ON Vertrieb Deutschland’s seven regional sales companies give it a strong local presence in the German marketplace. It also sells power and gas nationwide under the ‘E WIE EINFACH’ brand.

Clear focus areas for strategic development

Going forward, E.ON Deutschland will develop its business by enhancing efficiency and customer orientation and by making significant investments that will play a deci-sive role in transforming the energy system in Germany, which is the E.ON Group’s home market. The expansion of the country’s energy networks, which is primarily needed to deal with the rapid growth in renewables output, will require investments that markedly exceed those prior to the energy transformation. E.ON Deutschland therefore intends to focus its regional supply business on its four largest regional utilities: E.ON Avacon, E.ON Bayern, E.ON edis, and E.ON Hanse. Working closely with their respective municipal partners, these companies will play a key role in the trans-formation of Germany’s energy system at the local level. Over the next three years, these four regional utilities will invest a total of more than €0.5 billion in smart, robust, and efficient energy networks.

E.ON Deutschland’s investments will also be aimed at expanding its distributed-generation business, primarily in small and medium-sized cogeneration and biomass-fired units. Its four large regional utilities alone plan to invest about €55 million in distributed generation in 2012 - nearly 60 percent more than last year. A further increase in investments is planned for 2013.

The company also plans to considerably strengthen and expand its sales business across the German market in order to provide optimal supply service to all E.ON customers, to expand its range of products, to further improve its services, and to attract new customers. As part of this effort, E.ON Deutschland will continually enlarge its offering of innovative solutions and attractive products, which already includes photovoltaic arrays, micro and mini cogeneration units, and charging solutions for electric vehicles.

“By enlarging our networks, expanding distributed generation, and strengthening our sales business, we want to continue to make an important contribution to the E.ON Group’s earnings performance and also play our part in transforming Germany’s energy system,” said Ingo Luge, who oversees E.ON’s business in Germany. “To ensure that we achieve these objectives, we intend to pool our strengths, establish an even more efficient setup, and enhance our innovation and investment strength”.