Vattenfall

Vattenfall AB
legal form	Aktiebolag
founding	1909
Seat	Stockholm , Sweden
management	Magnus Hall
Number of employees	20,041 (Dec. 31, 2017)
sales	135.3 billion SEK in 2017 (139 billion SEK in 2016)
Branch	Energy supplier
Website	www.vattenfall.com

Vattenfall AB is a Swedish energy company and one of the leading - by its own account the fifth largest - electricity producers in Europe. The name Vattenfall is the Swedish term for the German word "Wasserfall" and is an abbreviation for the original name Kungliga Vattenfallstyrelsen (German: royal waterfall authority). Vattenfall AB is wholly owned by the Swedish state.

In Germany, Vattenfall is active through its subsidiary Vattenfall GmbH and is the fourth largest energy supply company (after E.ON , RWE and EnBW ) .

Company data

The company operates across Europe and, as the parent company, has subsidiaries in Germany (Vattenfall GmbH), the Netherlands ( NV Nuon Energy ) and Denmark (Elsam). The Vattenfall Group is one of the largest electricity and heat producers in Europe.

Net sales revenue :	135.3 billion Swedish kronor (SEK) (139.2 billion 2016)
Year profit after tax:	9.5 billion SEK (−2.2 billion 2016)
Customers (2013):	17.2 million
Electricity generation (Jan. – Dec.):	127.3 TWh (119 TWh 2016)
Electricity sales (Jan. – Dec.):	157.3 TWh (193.2 TWh 2016)
Heat sales (Jan. – Dec.):	18.8 TWh per year (20.3 TWh 2016)
Employees:	20,041 (19,935 in 2016, 34,685 in 2011)

(Data as of December 31, 2017)

Corporate history

The Vattenfall headquarters were relocated to a new building in the suburb of Solna , north of Stockholm, in autumn 2012 .

The listed Vattenfall commercial buildings in Råcksta, west of Stockholm, were abandoned in autumn 2012 and have been converted for residential use since then.

27% of the group-wide electricity production is generated by nuclear power . Vattenfall's oldest nuclear power plant, Ringhals, in the west of Sweden, is in its 40th year of operation in 2014.

Around a quarter of the group-wide electricity production is based on hydropower, with a focus on northern Sweden , such as in Stornorrfors near Umeå .

Wind power at sea is gaining importance in Vattenfall's generation portfolio. Here a REpower -5M turbine from the Ormonde wind farm in Great Britain .

“In action for the coolest city in the world”
Stresemannstrasse 122, in Berlin-Mitte

Vattenfall's roots go back to 1899. At the initiative of the Swedish parliament, the energy of the Trollhättan waterfall should be used more. In the course of maintenance work, the idea of a hydropower plant came up. The project took shape at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1909 the “Kungliga Vattenfallstyrelsen” (the royal waterfall commission) was set up to work more on generating electricity using hydropower. This year is considered to be the birth of the later Vattenfall Group. At that time, the company primarily supplied industrial customers. Until the 1920s, individual electrical networks were built and gradually linked to one another - until the nationwide standard network in 1952. In 1951, the first large-scale power plant was inaugurated after the Second World War. During this time, electricity consumption in Sweden rose steadily. Since the late 1940s, voices have been loud calling for Sweden's entry into nuclear power generation. The first experimental reactor was commissioned in 1954 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Vattenfall built the small Ågesta nuclear power plant (output 10 MW). The nuclear reactor was operated with unenriched uranium (→ CANDU reactor ). During the 1960s, Vattenfall scaled back activities to expand the use of alternative energy sources. The company relied on nuclear energy and steadily increased the number of nuclear power plants in the course of the 1970s (→ nuclear energy in Sweden ). The end of growth in Sweden seemed likely after the 1980s. The opening of various national energy markets in Northern and Central Europe led to Vattenfall's expansion - to include Great Britain, Norway and Germany. During the 1990s, the Swedish company expanded into countries in Northern and Central Europe. This was also made possible by the liberalization of the respective national electricity grids.

Expansion phase in Europe (1996-2009)

The company has been operating internationally since 1996. From 1999 Vattenfall acquired shares in energy supply companies such as Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke , Vereinigte Energiewerke AG and the mining company Lausitzer Braunkohle AG . Together with Bewag , which was partly acquired in 2003 , these companies merged to form Vattenfall Europe AG . With the merger, Vattenfall became the fourth largest German electricity company (after E.ON , RWE and EnBW ). The HEW and Bewag brands were retained until 2006 after the merger. In 2006, the general meeting of Vattenfall Europe resolved to exclude minority shareholders by means of a squeeze-out . The transfer of the shares from minority shareholders of Vattenfall Europe to the Swedish parent company was terminated with the entry in the Berlin Commercial Register on April 21, 2008 and the group's listing on the stock exchange was thus discontinued.

From 2009 Vattenfall gradually took over the Dutch energy supply company Nuon (sales 6.1 billion euros / 2008) at a cash price of 9.86 billion euros. First of all, 49% of the shares were acquired with the assumption of operational management. Further shares were taken over within the following years. Previous shareholders in Nuon were Dutch cities and provinces. The Nuon network area is not affected by the project. It was separated from Nuon in July 2008 as part of the state unbundling and is operated in the independent network company Alliander . With the acquisition of Nuon, Vattenfall intended to further expand its position in the European energy sector through representation in the Benelux countries. Vattenfall had previously applied to take over Essent to no avail. The transaction should also improve the previously less pronounced development of Vattenfall's gas activities and enable Vattenfall to position itself as the largest provider of offshore wind turbines . In 2012 and 2013 it became known that Vattenfall was making write-downs totaling almost 40% on Nuon's enterprise value due to the difficult business environment for gas-fired electricity generation. Due to the fact that the purchase price was too high, the purchase of Nuon was heavily criticized in retrospect in the Swedish press in 2013.

Difficulties in the European core business

From the mid-2000s, the market environment in Vattenfall's core businesses of electricity, gas and heat production, especially on mainland Europe, became increasingly difficult. The classic business model of base load electricity production suffered from the increasing role of renewable energies and the associated falling prices on electricity wholesale markets. The nuclear phase-out in Germany and the lack of profitability of gas-fired power plants at high gas prices also made problems for the group. At the end of 2012, the Swedish government relaxed the company's financial goals at an extraordinary general meeting. The split of the group into a Nordic part and a continental European part, which was decided in January 2014, is rated by some analysts as a precursor to a partial or complete withdrawal of Vattenfall AB from lignite-based power generation in Germany. The Group's commitment to network operation of the district heating and electricity distribution networks in Hamburg and Berlin is now also at stake . Although not entirely voluntary, as a result of a referendum with the City of Hamburg in early 2014, Vattenfall agreed on the direct sale of the electricity distribution network and the optional sale of the district heating network to the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg . The group intends to continue to hold onto the electricity and district heating network in Berlin after the referendum there on the remunicipalisation of Berlin's energy supply in 2013 just failed to reach the quorum (for the district heating network, see also Vattenfall Europe Wärme ).

Engagement in the fields of renewable energies and emission reduction

In 2012, the Swedish government told Vattenfall to focus more on renewable energies and less on coal and nuclear power . Sustainability goals require Vattenfall to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 65 million tons by 2020 (2010: 94 million tons). Against the background of this sustainability goal, the Lippendorf lignite power plant was offered for sale to the public at the beginning of 2013 . Vattenfall's efforts to bring the technology of CO ₂ capture and storage to market maturity should also be seen in this context . Vattenfall originally planned a project for CO ₂ capture and storage at a new lignite power station at the Jänschwalde power station in Brandenburg . However, these plans were discontinued in December 2011.

The group has been investing in various major projects in the field of offshore wind energy since the early 2000s . These include, for example, Vattenfall's investments in the German North Sea wind farms DanTysk , Sandbank (288 MW each) and Alpha Ventus (60 MW) as well as in numerous British projects. While Vattenfall in Germany has withdrawn from nuclear power production with the exception of a 20% minority stake in Brokdorf , in the Swedish business nuclear energy continues to be pursued as a low-CO ₂ option to achieve climate goals. In July 2017, the company announced that it wanted to phase out the use of fossil fuels within a generation . These are to be replaced by renewable energies. In addition, the nuclear power plants in Sweden are to be operated for another 25 years. A few weeks earlier, the state had set itself the goal of being completely greenhouse gas neutral by 2045 by means of a parliamentary resolution .

Wind farm at sea	sea	country	Capacity (MW)	Participation	business
Alpha ventus	North Sea	Germany Germany	60	26.25%	2009
DanTysk	North Sea	Germany Germany	288	51%	2014
Sandbar	North Sea	Germany Germany	288	51%	2017
Egmond aan Zee	North Sea	Netherlands Netherlands	109	25%	2007
Horns Rev	North Sea	Denmark Denmark	160	60%	2002
Kentish Flats	North Sea	United Kingdom United Kingdom	139.5	100%	2005, 2015
Lillgrund	Baltic Sea	Sweden Sweden	110	100%	2007
Ormonde	Irish Sea	United Kingdom United Kingdom	150	51%	2011
Thanet	North Sea	United Kingdom United Kingdom	300	100%	2010
Aberdeen Bay	North Sea	United Kingdom United Kingdom	92	100%	2018