Vorarlberg power plants
| Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG
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| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | AT0000824503 |
| founding | 1901 (legal form: 1928) |
| resolution | 2019 |
| Reason for dissolution | fusion |
| Seat | Bregenz , Austria |
| Branch | power supply |
| Website | www.vkw.at |
The Vorarlberger Kraftwerke Aktiengesellschaft (FMV) based in Bregenz was a power company in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg . With around 170,000 customers all over Vorarlberg and the Westallgäu, it was the largest electricity seller in the region. On July 2, 2019, Vorarlberger Illwerke AG and Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG were merged into illwerke vkw AG .
history
Beginnings: Jenny & Schindler
In 1884 Friedrich Wilhelm Schindler generated electricity for the first time with a direct current generator in his uncle's company in Kennelbach . The first hydroelectric power station and the first electrical lighting system in Austria were built here.
As early as 1895, the first power station was put into operation in Schruns in Montafon and in 1901 electricity was also generated on the Ill in Lorüns .
In December 1901, the Jenny & Schindler electricity works began to produce electricity for the communities of Rieden-Vorloster and Kennelbach. In 1905 F. W. Schindler founded the E-Werk Bregenz-Rieden , from which the VKW later emerged. With the advancing industrialization of Vorarlberg's communities and the steadily growing number of inhabitants, the need for electricity also increased .
As early as 1909, the Vorarlberg Hydropower Committee had been appointed to deal with the hydropower laws and was founded on the initiative of the electrical engineer Herbert Loacker, the Landtag member Josef Peer and the manufacturer and first chairman of the Vorarlberg Federation of Industrialists Ignaz Rüsch (1861-1925). Governor Adolf Rhomberg was in the chair . In 1917, Dean Barnabas Fink was appointed by the state committee as a consultant for the expansion of hydropower.
The company was primarily responsible for the power supply in Vorarlberg. In 1909 electricity was delivered abroad ( Westallgäu ) for the first time . By 1914 around 2/3 of the population of Vorarlberg was supplied with electricity. The First World War hampered continuous development and in 1916 the previously open trading company Elektrizitätswerke Jenny & Schindler was transformed into Vorarlberger Kraftwerke Gesellschaft mbH
Expansion phase
The expansion of the electricity industry became a strategy and promoted the development of the country. VKW developed into the largest electrical works and remained in private ownership until 1929. In 1928 Jenny & Schindler converted the company into a stock corporation with the consent of the VKW shareholders . In 1929 the country bought the majority of the shares and VKW became a state company.
In 1939 VKW took over the Allgäuer Elektrizitätsgesellschaft mbH (AEGL), which had been dissolved by Jenny & Schindler . This brought Allgäu local networks directly to VKW.
After the end of the war, Johann Josef Mittelberger (1879–1963) took over the commercial area of Vorarlberg power plants as director and continued this activity until 1950.
From 1947 onwards, the Republic of Austria made the VKW task of supplying, distributing and regulating prices at state level.
In 2001, Vorarlberger Illwerke AG, the largest electricity producer in the country, and Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG merged to form the Illwerke / VKW Group. Vorarlberger Illwerke AG held around 97% of the shares in VKW AG.
Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG (VKW) withdrew permanently from the Vienna Stock Exchange with an announcement on March 22, 2013.
“Only a part of around 1.6% of the shares are traded on the Vienna Stock Exchange. In contrast, there would be high costs and high effort for listing on the stock exchange. "
On July 2, 2019, following a resolution at the Annual General Meeting (June 13, 2019), the legal merger of Vorarlberger Illwerke AG and Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG to form illwerke vkw AG . With the entry in the commercial register, the merger became legally effective on July 2, 2019.
Business areas
Within illwerke vkw, VKW was responsible for energy supply and sales as well as for electricity and natural gas trading. VKW sales mainly related to Vorarlberg and the neighboring Westallgäu. As part of electricity trading, VKW was active on the Energy Exchange Austria (Vienna) and European Power Exchange (Paris) for the markets in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Electricity trading also took on operational trading activities for Illwerke in the context of its own marketing. With a growing range of products and services in the areas of energy efficiency, mobility and renewable energies, VKW developed from a pure energy supplier to a comprehensive energy service provider.
VKW power plants
Here are the VKW power plants, listed by year of commissioning (excluding Illwerke ):
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Small hydropower plants
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The Langenegg power plant , which opened in 1979, was the largest power plant in the VKW.
The smaller power plants in Ebensand , Nüziders , Au , Schoppernau and Walkerbach / Lech have outputs between 45 and 630 kW. These automatically operating run-of-river power plants are looked after by the larger power plants in the vicinity.
Further business activity
From the mid-1990s, VKW AG expanded its business activities into new areas:
- Vorarlberger Erdgasgesellschaft (VEG)
- telecommunications
- Geographic information services
- Heat supply from domestic biomass: For this purpose, Vorarlberg's heating plants were built in smaller communities and operated by VKW. Such heating plants were built in Lech , Hittisau , Mellau , Gaschurn and Egg . With the help of an underground pipe system, they supply large parts of the communities with heat.
- Waste management (until July 2007).
literature
- Klaus Plitzner: The way south! Or is it to the north? From the beginnings of the electricity industry in Vorarlberg to the establishment of the “Vorarlberger Illwerke” until the 1930s. In: Helmut Maier (ed.): Electricity industry between environment, technology and politics: Aspects from 100 years of RWE history 1898–1998. Freiberg 1999, ISBN 3-86012-087-5 , p. 93 ff.
Web links
- Homepage of the illwerke vkw
- Homepage of the VKW
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Vorarlberger Kraftwerke Aktiengesellschaft . Creditreform / firmenabc.at
- ↑ a b Significantly less profit for Illwerke / VKW
- ^ Stand Montafon (ed.): Montafoner Heimatbuch. 1974.
- ↑ Klaus Fessler, Werner Matt (ed.): Rüsch-Werke Dornbirn - the most important metal company in Vorarlberg in the industrial age. Dornbirn 2017, pp. 12–26 ( dornbirn.at ).
- ^ Gerhard Wanner : Vorarlbergs industrial history. Feldkirch 1990, p. 223.
- ↑ Vorarlberg power plants leave Vienna's stock exchange. on: money.oe24.at , March 22, 2013.
- ↑ Johannes Rauch : Up with the gas prices! rauch.twoday.net, October 16, 2008.
- ↑ Sale of Hubert Häusle GmbH ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Explanation on the VKW website.
Coordinates: 47 ° 29 ′ 16.8 ″ N , 9 ° 44 ′ 10.4 ″ E