Energy company
An energy group is a company that offers its customers various forms of energy (e.g. electrical energy , district heating and natural gas ). For energy conversion, distribution networks and sales, several dependent companies are often combined in one group .
According to Section 3 of the German Energy Industry Act (EnWG), the term energy supply network refers to electricity and gas - including liquefied natural gas (LNG). The term district heating or heat supply is only mentioned in connection with gas supply companies . According to Section 3 No. 18 EnWG, energy supply companies are “natural or legal persons who supply energy to others, operate an energy supply network or have the right to dispose of an energy supply network as the owner”. So you take on the tasks of generation, distribution and sales. This includes electricity supply companies as well as natural gas and, in a broader sense, district heating companies.
Due to the European Directive 96/92 / EG, corporations were obliged to keep separate accounts for the various business areas (generation, transmission, distribution) (so-called accounting unbundling). This separate bookkeeping should enable a separation of the network operation from the energy supply and thus a liberalization of the market.
Group and group companies are legally defined in Section 18 of the German Stock Corporation Act . Accordingly, several dependent companies under the uniform management of the dominant company are to be viewed as a group.
The dominant position of companies in the German energy market is based on sales and the number of customers, for example. Together, the first four of the following groups together control around 80 percent of the German electricity supply market, whereby it should be noted that E.ON itself is only a producer and network operator and sells electricity to end customers mainly through the Group's own sales companies:
| rank | Companies | Total sales 2014 | Electricity sales market share 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | E.ON | € 111 billion | (no supplier) |
| 2. | RWE | € 48 billion | 15.9% |
| 3. | EnBW | € 21 billion | 12.7% |
| 4th | Vattenfall Europe | € 11 billion | 4.4% |
| 5. | EWE | € 8 billion | 2.0% |
The situation is somewhat different on the gas market and in district heating. At slightly more than 500, the number of district heating producers is roughly the same as the number of network operators and suppliers, especially since they are often the same company. There are only six natural gas production companies in Germany, but the number of suppliers in Germany was 880 in 2013. Gazprom is the world's largest natural gas production company and, with a market capitalization of 110 billion US dollars, one of the largest companies in Europe. Gazprom Germania is the German subsidiary. The five largest gas suppliers in Germany are - measured by the amount of gas sold:
| rank | Companies | Gas sales in 2014 in GWh |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | E.ON | 339,400 |
| 2. | Thüga | 120,500 |
| 3. | EnBW | 117,000 |
| 4th | Stadtwerke Munich | 106,863 |
| 5. | RWE | 90,200 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ § 53a Energy Industry Act : Securing the supply of household customers with natural gas
- ↑ http://www.strom-magazin.de/info/top-10-stromversorger
- ↑ http://www.strompreisvergleich.info/unternehmen-am-deutschen-energiemarkt.php
- ↑ http://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/250346/umfrage/wichtige-gasversorger-nach-absatz-in-deutschland