Divisions

Development of Sales

Thanks to a responsible pricing policy, Wien Energie Vertrieb has so far been able to cushion the blow of the additional costs associated with natural gas and keep prices stable – in contrast to its competitors. Moreover, the purchase price for electrical power on the European electricity markets is displaying an upward trend. Seeing as this is where Wien Energie Vertrieb buys additional supplies, it has become necessary to make a small upward adjustment to the price of electricity, effective 1.1.2008.

District heating

In 2008, a total of 11,940 customers living in apartments were acquired as district heating customers; 3,398 of them were so-called retrofits. There were also a further 240 new connections with large-scale customers including 25 upgrades with a total connected load of 110.4 MW.

Sales of district heating rose by 19.8% to 5,168,000 MWh.

For new buildings, the aim is to ensure that the connection to the district heating network is generally available. In the case of existing properties, the City of Vienna has been supporting the conversion to district heating by providing grants that also make it cost-effective to install district heating in buildings with other heating systems.

Local heating

As with district heating, sales of local heating were also influenced by the colder weather, rising by 2% to 267,239 MWh.

District cooling

From summer 2009, Vienna General Hospital will be supplied with district cooling, an innovative and environmentally sensitive form of air-conditioning. Several large customers such as the TownTown office complex in Vienna’s 3rd District are already being supplied with district cooling, while a number of projects are “in the pipeline”.

As far as the development of business is concerned, the commercial development of energy supply companies is very dependent on weather conditions. In contrast to the higher temperatures seen in recent years, average monthly temperatures during the reporting year were considerably lower than those of the previous year.

As a result, the number of heating degree days increased by 33%, reflected in a 10% rise in energy sales.