Austrian Power Solution: VERBUND Welcomes Agreement as Important Step
VERBUND expressly welcomes the agreement on a national power partnership between EnergieAllianz and VERBUND, which was presented by Federal Chancellor Schüssel and Minister for Economic Affairs Bartenstein jointly with Provincial Governors Pröll, Häupl, Pühringer and Niessl.
With its active and constructive participation in the negotiations on an Austrian power solution, VERBUND has proved again that it considers as close a cooperation as possible between the Austrian power companies to be very important.
VERBUND regards the new agreement as an important step on the road to an Austrian power partnership at all value stages which is also open to other companies of the Austrian electricity industry. As far as VERBUND is concerned, its representatives will focus on working out a stable partnership model in the next few months which will provide the maximum benefits for all participating companies and the Austrian customers.
Specifically, VERBUND points out that the Austrian power solution will ensure the long-term supply of clean power generated from renewable hydropower at market prices for all Austrian consumers. For its stockholders, considerable cost and market synergies will lead to a further sustainable increase in value of their shares in the flagship of the Austrian power industry.
The agreement on an Austrian power solution will not keep VERBUND from continuing to bear in mind a European perspective. Although the hydropower company European Hydro Power (EHP), which was originally planned together with the German power group E.ON, is no longer possible as planned due to the changed general set-up, the two companies, VERBUND and E.ON, will continue their decades of cooperation and exhaust other options to optimise their business. VERBUND will continue to play its active role in the increasingly liberalized European power market and use new opportunities of cross-border energy partnerships to promote its international competitiveness.