Siemens 2012 Annual Report Download - page 45

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Dr. Zimmer, the future of energy is currently a hot topic in Germany.
What stance is EnBW taking?
. : Building a new energy system is a huge challenge for Germany.
And as one of the country’s largest energy companies, we’re tackling it head-
on. In terms of our strategy, this means we’re continuing to safeguard our
position as a low-carbon energy producer. In addition to supplying power
from highly efficient conventional plants, we intend to double the amount
of power we generate from renewable energies by . We already have
a relatively large share of hydropower-based renewables in our portfolio.
By , we want to further expand our installed capacity from renewables
by about , megawatts.
One step in this direction is certainly the EnBW Baltic  wind farm,
Germany’s first commercial offshore wind installation. Your company
partnered with us on its construction in . How did the idea for
this project develop, and what conclusions have you drawn from the
operation of the wind farm?
. : We on EnBW’s executive board decided in fiscal / that we
wanted to invest more heavily in renewable energies. Complementing our
traditionally strong involvement in hydropower, we’ve defined wind energy
as a further focus. Following extensive analyses, we concluded that wind
turbines and wind farms, both onshore and offshore, could be particularly
profitable. That’s why in  we bought four licenses for offshore instal-
lations – two in the Baltic Sea and two in the North Sea – and now we’re in
the process of developing these projects. The EnBW Baltic  wind farm has
 wind turbines from Siemens and a total capacity of up to . megawatts.
We’re very satisfied with its current performance. Availability is very good,
and we achieved quite gratifying overall results the first year.
How’s the partnership with Siemens worked out?
. : When planning and implementing projects of this magnitude, we
need reliable partners who keep their promises. Since the very beginning of
the EnBW Baltic  project, the cooperation with our colleagues at Siemens has
been characterized by great trust. And this trust is also based on our experi-
ence in other major projects on which we have partnered.
EnBW Baltic  is quite far from your home region in southwestern
Germany. How is the electricity generated there distributed through-
out the country?
. : Our wind farm in the Baltic feeds directly into the -hertz grid.
From there, the energy is further distributed within Germany via an extensive
interconnected grid. If we build more wind farms on the coast and offshore,
where there’s lots of wind, we’ll have to transport large amounts of energy
to the southern part of the country. By , offshore wind farms operating
off Germany’s coasts are expected to be supplying , megawatts of elec-
tricity. That’s why we’ll also need low-loss high-voltage direct-current (HVDC)
transmission in the future. The grid development plan prepared by our
“Building a new energy
system is a huge challenge.”
Providing energy for the future will require innovative
solutions and strong partnerships. Siemens and the energy
company Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) have been
cooperating closely for years. Dr. Hans-Josef Zimmer,
Chief Technology Officer of EnBW, talks about the steps
that must be taken to usher in a new energy era.
With revenue of more than € billion
in  and some , employees,
EnBW is one of the largest energy
companies in Germany and in Europe.
Dr. Hans-Josef Zimmer (), Chief
Technology Officer of EnBW, is a
mechanical engineer who has been
employed at EnBW for  years. He’s
installed a solar-thermal system at
his own home to provide heat and
hot water. Zimmer was also one
of EnBW’s first customers to opt for
a smart electricity meter – which
quickly showed him that power con-
sumption can be slashed by switch-
ing devices off rather than operating
them in standby mode.