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ENERGY

RWE CEO stepping down early

Jürgen Grossmann, who heads Germany's second largest power company, RWE, is to step down early and be replaced by Dutchman Peter Terium, the company said Monday.

Published: 8 August 2011 17:04 CEST
RWE CEO stepping down early
Photo: DPA

The 59-year-old Grossmann, a strong advocate of nuclear energy, will hand over to Terium, 47, on July 1 next year.

Grossmann was originally due to retire at the end of September 2012. The company did not cite a reason for moving up his departure date.

Terium is currently the head of RWE’s Dutch and Belgian subsidiary Essent N.V.

RWE, along with competitor EON, is the largest operator of nuclear reactors in Germany and Grossmann was long considered the country’s main nuclear power advocate.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government decided in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan in March to close for good all 17 of Germany’s nuclear reactors within 11 years.

“(Terium) will promote the further transformation of the company in a fast changing environment and will be able to lead the company to continued success in the future,” RWE supervisory board chairman Manfred Schneider said in a statement.

AFP/mdm

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BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

Published: 16 February 2024 10:45 CET
France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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