Germany subsidiary of Tennet: the federal government is examining entry into the electricity network operator

Status: 11/30/2022 5:31 p.m

Is Germany buying the German “electricity highways” from the operator Tennet in a billion-dollar deal? According to Economics Minister Habeck, there are discussions about this. Getting started could be important for the energy transition.

The federal government is holding talks about a possible state entry into the power grid operator Tennet. Examining such a deal is politically attractive, said Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) in Berlin today. He could not give any details about the ongoing talks with the Dutch parent company.

Tennet is one of the major operators of high-voltage lines – the so-called “electricity highways”. Their expansion is considered important for the energy transition because, for example, wind power can be transported southwards from offshore plants in the North Sea. Tennet has a network of more than 10,000 kilometers in Germany. It originally belonged to the energy group E.ON, which sold it to the Dutch Tennet group in 2009.

After getting involved with companies like Tennet, the federal government could exert much more political influence on the planned network expansion. At the same time, state control would protect against unwelcome investors. Minister Habeck said he thinks it makes sense for the state to be responsible for infrastructure monopolies such as the power grid. The state bank KfW already holds a fifth of the shares in the East German power grid operator 50Hertz.

KfW is apparently to receive a majority stake

According to a news agency report Reuters The federal government is pursuing the goal of KfW buying at least a majority of Tennet’s German business. A complete takeover is also conceivable. Talks are progressing, but an agreement in the first quarter of 2023 is unlikely. They are counting on a conclusion in the first half of next year.

The value of Tennet’s German business is estimated at around five billion euros. Talks about a possible entry by the German state have been going on since 2020. At that time, the German and Dutch governments had signed a declaration of intent. This provided for a joint approach to strengthen Tennet’s capital base. The network operator’s parent company, Tennet Holding, is owned by the Dutch state.

Also joining TransnetBW?

The “preservation of appropriate rights and influence on Tennet Germany” is “of central importance” for the federal government, the Ministry of Finance had explained to the Budget Committee of the Bundestag about the possible deal. Noisy Reuters the federal government is also considering state ownership of the power grid operator TransnetBW – a subsidiary of the EnBW group. Here, the utility is pursuing controversial plans for partial privatization – which is in contrast to the federal election program of the Greens. KfW has a right of first refusal for 24.95 percent of the shares in Transnet BW.

At the beginning of the millennium, the EU decreed the separation of the large electricity transmission grids. The idea of ​​a German network company has been discussed in politics for a long time. However, this was never implemented. Instead, there are four major network operator companies: Tennet, 50Hertz, TransnetBW and Amprion.

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