EnBW open to partnerships in U.S. offshore wind expansion (updated)
23/01/2019 16:21
* Active on U.S. west and east coasts
* Preparing for upcoming tenders in Taiwan
* No restructuring planned for presence in home market
(Adds details, background)
By Christoph Steitz, Vera Eckert and Tom Käckenhoff
BERLIN, Jan 23 (Reuters) - German utility EnBW EBKG.DE
could seek more partners in its planned push into the burgeoning
U.S. offshore wind sector, its chief executive said.
EnBW has already formed a joint venture with project
developer Trident Winds to cater to the U.S. west coast but is
so far working alone on the booming east coast, where it set up
a subsidiary in the fourth quarter of 2018.
"We're open to partnerships also in the offshore business,"
Frank Mastiaux told Reuters at the annual Handelsblatt energy
conference in Berlin.
"At the moment, it is very difficult to develop new offshore
wind parks in our home market Germany as well as in the
remaining parts of Europe. We want to continue to grow and are
looking for attractive foreign markets in a very selective way."
Along with Taiwan, the United States has become one of the
global offshore wind industry's growth markets, with HSBC
expecting up to 8.7 gigawatts worth of capacity auctions there
over the next four years.
European rivals EDF EDF.PA and EDP Renovaveis EDPR.LS
have each teamed up with oil major Shell RDSa.L to make bids
for U.S. offshore wind capacity, with one of them having been
successful in recent bids. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1YJ1EZ urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN1YO134
Despite its strong regional focus, EnBW has been aggressive
in its offshore wind expansion, with installed capacity of 336
megawatt (MW) and a further 609 MW under construction.
Last year, it became the first German utility to take stakes
in offshore wind projects in Taiwan, where it works together
with Macquarie MQG.AX and Swancor 3708.TW . urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1Q21HD
EnBW, which lost out in a first auction round last year, is
now preparing for upcoming tenders, Mastiaux said. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1S00YL
"When it comes to entering a market, no matter in which
industry, it's always the exception to be successful right away.
Usually, you have to learn a few lessons first."
EnBW has cut the profit contribution from conventional
energy sources to 18 percent now from up to 80 percent in the
past, but has decided against a major corporate restructuring,
unlike larger peers RWE RWEG.DE and E.ON EONGn.DE .
Mastiaux, a former E.ON and BP BP.L executive, said that
would not change, as large structural overhauls swallow a lot of
time, energy and money, adding he would rather use these
resources to expand EnBW's business.
That includes examining retrofits of coal plants, which are
due to be phased out by Germany, but Mastiaux said operators
would have to be compensated if there were cases of
expropriation. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1ZN26T
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Tom Kaeckenhoff and Vera
Eckert, editing by Riham Alkousaa and Ken Ferris)
((christoph.steitz@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1269;
Reuters Messaging:
christoph.steitz.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))