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18 December 2007 - Several German regional energy companies in the Ruhr area are planning to merge into one big national player by 2009, according to regional newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ).
According to WAZ, which claims to have viewed an internal strategy paper, the new "nationally and internationally competitive [holding] company" is to emerge out of a fusion of water company Gelsenwasser and municipal utilities Stadtwerke Bochum and Dortmunder Energie und Wasser (DEW21) with the intention of including a grid operator and more regional utilities over time.
WAZ said the holding company would include electricity and gas trading, a grid operator along with a water and sewage section.
WAZ said the new company wants to be strong enough to compete with
Germany's four major utilities - E.ON, RWE, Vattenfall Europe and ENBW - and other major European energy companies.
The "big four" currently control over 80 per cent of Germany's power production.
If the plan goes ahead, the German Rhein-Ruhr area would be home to three out of five national energy companies as Germany's two biggest utilities, E.ON and RWE, are based in Dusseldorf and Essen respectively.
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