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Isar 2 on the Isar: The power plant is scheduled to be shut down by the end of the year
Photo: AYHAN UYANIK / REUTERS
The energy company Eon has expressed reservations about the question of continued operation of its nuclear power plant Isar 2 in Lower Bavaria, but at the same time signaled its willingness to talk.
At the beginning of the Ukraine war, the federal government spoke out clearly against extending the service lives of nuclear power plants in Germany, said Eon CFO Mark Spieker on Wednesday in Essen.
“In doing so, she made a political decision not to resort to this option.
We respect this decision.«
"No bills" made for continued operation
Eon has been preparing technically and organizationally for the decommissioning and dismantling of the nuclear power plants for years.
"Should the federal government come to a reassessment of the situation as part of the ongoing stress test, then we are ready to talk," Spieker continued.
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The Eon CEO Leonhard Birnbaum emphasized that the planning provides for the standstill.
“We have no plans for continued operation of any kind.
We also do not know the boundary conditions of such continued operation.
Explicitly: We don't have any figures on this, and we haven't made any calculations either."
With Isar, Eon operates one of the three nuclear power plants still in operation in Germany.
In the first half of the year, the nuclear power sector contributed 9.6 percent to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) with 390 million euros.
In the same half of the previous year, when Eon operated two more nuclear power plants, it was around 600 million euros more, according to Spieker.
Prices will continue to rise
Eon expects electricity and gas prices for end customers to continue to rise.
Price pressure prevails in all markets, said Spieker.
"The only thing that differs is how quickly these price increases are then implemented." There is no question that they would have to come in the end.
Eon is Germany's largest energy supplier.
Eon supplies around 14 million private and business customers in Germany.
These include around 1.5 million gas customers.
In addition to energy sales, the operation of distribution networks is the other major pillar in the core business of the Essen-based Dax group.
Eon announced in March that it would raise prices, citing the sharp rise in wholesale prices for energy as the reason.
"In Germany, most of these price increases have already been implemented or announced," said Spieker.
Eon CEO Leonhard Birnbaum named an average increase of 40 percent compared to the previous year as an example of a price increase in natural gas for North Rhine-Westphalia.
When there will be a next increase is speculation.
This depends, for example, on the price development in wholesale, on demand and on the level of the gas levy planned by the federal government.
For electricity, the price increase for Eon customers in North Rhine-Westphalia was 17 percent, which was compensated for by the elimination of the EEG surcharge on July 1st.
mamk/dpa-AFX
