RWE boss Krebber: “We have no image problem”

RWE presented its figures for 2022 today and reported a solid profit – an increase of almost 73 percent compared to the previous year to 6.3 billion euros. CEO Krebber says in an interview how things should continue.

tagesschau.de: A newspaper colleague wrote that you have golden hands – whatever you touch turns to gold. RWE has doubled its profit: do you really have a golden touch?

Markus Krebber: That’s nice of you to refer to me, but I have to say no. The company lives from its employees. I have the honor of leading with my fellow board members. It’s a team effort.

I think we did a lot of things right, both in terms of strategic alignment and, of course, operationally delivering and sticking with it in such a critical year of crisis. In this respect, we can look back on the year with satisfaction.

tagesschau.de: Other companies that have now doubled their profits would walk away with it, they would cheer. You seem a bit embarrassed that you’re currently double winning.

crab: Don’t be embarrassed, it was part of the planning. If you invest massively, 4.4 billion euros net alone, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that profits increase. Otherwise we would have invested unprofitably.

Apple of discord Lützerath

tagesschau.de: Looking back on the year – it started with Lützerath. If you look back at what happened there, how would you rate it? Was it really worth it from RWE’s point of view to go into this “open battle”? Or could it have been done more calmly from your point of view? Because maybe we don’t need the coal under Lützerath at all.

crab: I stick to a purely factual assessment. When you look at Lützerath, it needs to be put into context. We have reached an agreement with the federal and state governments to be the only company to phase out coal by 2030, to leave a lot of coal in the ground and, above all, to be able to preserve the inhabited villages and farms. In return, the uninhabited settlement of Lützerath had to be used, also to ensure the short-term energy supply during the crisis.

In that respect, I still think that’s absolutely correct. But I would like to make the point: the energy transition and how much coal we still need is not decided by the location of a coal-fired power plant or open-cast mine, but by the expansion of renewables. The coal now only runs when the renewable electricity is not sufficient. We have to accelerate the energy transition, then we will save CO2.

tagesschau.de: But it must annoy you all the more that you are being portrayed by the demonstrators in Lützerath as the fossil dinosaur that cannot be taught – even though you actually want something completely different?

crab: I would break it down: I think there are demonstrators who want to express their dissatisfaction with the slowness of the energy transition in Germany, which was also the mistake of the past. I can understand that.

But what absolutely had to be rejected in Lützerath was the extent of the violence. And what I would also have wished for was that those in motion, of whom I have just spoken – who want to express their dissatisfaction with the acceleration – that they distance themselves more clearly from what is justified demonstration and expression of will and what is violence.

“Drivers of the energy transition”

tagesschau.de: But what are you going to do about the bad image you have with your opponents?

crab: I can’t say that we have a problem with our image, quite the opposite. As a company, we need several things in order to be able to successfully implement the energy transition: First of all, we need employees, and when I see which employees come to us, then I say we will get the right people who understand the history of RWE , that we want to transform as quickly as possible, that we are drivers of the energy transition. In this respect, we don’t have an image problem at all.

Also on the investor side: we get the capital to be able to do our expansion, and we have the right partners on the supplier side, so that we don’t have any image problems at all. And that it may take a little longer in public for the path we are actually on to become established, that’s the way it is.

tagesschau.de: What path are you on, tell us a few examples.

crab: Yes, if you just look at the importance of German nuclear energy and coal in the group, it was well over 50 percent a few years ago. That will fall below ten percent in the next year, and we have a very clear path to ending coal-fired power generation by 2030 and being climate-neutral by 2040 – i.e. faster than all national and European targets.

“It stays with April 15th”

tagesschau.de: You just said yourself – keyword nuclear energy: In a month you will shut down the last nuclear power plant. Really? Or would it still be possible to extend it if politicians wanted it?

crab: My expectation today is that the political decision will remain, i.e. that nuclear power in Germany will be finished by April 15, and then it will be about orderly dismantling.

tagesschau.de: Would it be theoretically possible if politicians wanted it to be extended again?

crab: In theory, a lot is possible, but in the end politics decides what is done.

tagesschau.de: But it’s not like it’s going to fail now due to lack of fuel rods or something?

crab: No, of course you have to observe certain technical conditions. The fuel rods have lead time and things like that, but I think these are all hypothetical discussions right now. My expectation: The political decision, April 15th, remains the same.

Sun, Wind, Hydrogen

tagesschau.de: And then, as you said, the future lies with renewable energies. What are the projects here now, but also in the USA?

crab: We have a whole circle that we naturally manufacture for green, full energy supply. On the one hand, this is renewable. However, we also have to build hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants to ensure security of supply, because we also have to make sufficient electricity available when the wind and sun are not producing enough. And to do this, the hydrogen economy must be expanded.

Of course we want to continue building offshore, we have just awarded contracts for 1.6 gigawatt hours in the North Sea. We will participate in the offshore tenders this year. We continue onshore and photovoltaic expansion, we just opened seven offices in Germany last year and hired people to develop projects.

And we have just ordered 200 megawatt hours on the electrolysis side – the first and largest system – for us, and it is now also being built in Lingen. As you can see, we are involved in everything and this year we are still waiting for the tender for hydrogen-capable gas power plants, and the goal is to build three gigawatt hours by the end of the decade.

tagesschau.de: Today: double win. In a year: What will you be able to present then?

crab: We said today that we expect a similar annual result as this year at the EBITDA level, maybe a little less. But in this respect I believe that the profit situation will remain positive. We are also looking positively at the current year – but also because it is our birthday this year and we will be 125 years old.