Security and quality of supply

Security of supply is the fundamental basis for general business growth, job creation and quality of life. The services of the Energie AG Group are a major driver of Upper Austria’s international competitiveness as a business location.

A major contribution to the supply security is made by Energie AG's power plants and Netz OÖ GmbH's electricity grid. On the one hand, Energie AG operates a power plant pool for balancing energy, making it a significant contributor to the primary and secondary balancing in Austria. On the other hand, the congestion management of Energie AG's power plants, and the CCGT power plant in Timelkam in particular, make a significant contribution to supporting the grid.

In response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Austrian government and E-Control Austria are currently making preparations to further improve the security of supply. They include far-reaching measures such as the provisioning of a government-mandated reserve stock of natural gas, measures that facilitate the substitution of natural gas, and many others. Austrian Strategic Gas Storage Management GmbH (ASGM), a subsidiary of Austrian Gas Grid Management AG (AGGM) in which Netz OÖ GmbH holds a 15% interest, was commissioned with storing 20 TWh of gas in Austria’s gas storage facilities (in the interest of strategic gas reserves in line with § 18a of the Gas Industry Act (GWG) 2011). The reserve will be used to meet any supply shortages. According to Statistik Austria, the storage level early in October 2023 was 94 TWh, equivalent to 96% of the country’s total possible storage capacity. National gas consumption stands at around 90 TWh per year. Gas storage capacities also serve the purpose of meeting the provisioning obligations pursuant to Article 6 (1) lit. c of the Gas SoS Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 in conjunction with § 121 para 5 GWG and the national supply obligations in line with § 121 para 5a GWG. Under these statutory provisions, Vertrieb GmbH as the supplier of protected customers is obliged to evidence the corresponding volumes in storage for up to 45 days. In addition, there will be a mandatory provision of gas volumes of up to 45 days for thermal gas power plants over 50 MW from 1 January 2024. This provision will apply for two winter half years and expire in 2026.

Measures to improve the security of supply include not only precautions for gas customers but also place a particular focus on assuring the secure supply with district heat. Congestion management via the CCGT power plant at Timelkam is also playing a major part in upholding security of supply. Taking account of the measures planned at national level, the supply situation is good, although uncertainties do arise from the difficulty in anticipating Russian gas deliveries, Germany’s exit from nuclear energy and the currently insufficient nuclear power plant capacity in France. An EU-wide coordinated approach in the current energy crisis would be of great importance for the security of supply but also with regard to the development of energy prices.

The black start and island operation capability of power plants allows for these plants to be started up without access to an external electricity supply. In fiscal year 2022/2023, Netz OÖ GmbH has successfully carried out a number of inspections of the black start and island operation functions with the generation resources available for a grid restoration. Netz OÖ GmbH is conducting regular training with grid simulators to evaluate coordinated grid restoration scenarios. Regularly recurring functional testing of the generation plants relevant to a grid restoration along with testing of the operational processes are an important element in assuring the security of supply.

Measures aimed at improving the security of natural gas supply are being considered in the face of the current energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine conflict. These include the optimisation of fuel procurement, additional storage of natural gas reserves and the exploration of conversion and substitution potential in relation to natural gas. The Group is also preparing the substitution of natural gas in response to the expected 1st Regulation on Natural Gas Steering Measures.

The expansion and strengthening of the grid infrastructure combined with increasing energy storage capacities (e.g. pumped-storage power plants) is intended to quickly and fully buffer peak loads and compensate for the volatile infeed volumes from decentralised generation systems that produce energy from renewable sources.

In the area of digitalisation, the fibre-optic networks is being expanded further as a prerequisite for a full-coverage supply of all regions in Upper Austria with internet access at the speed of light.

Energie AG is taking steps to secure a high-quality supply with drinking water and waste water treatment services, especially in regions affected by water shortages, and also contributes technological know-how in the area of waste water treatment that will be used to create a solid infrastructure (e.g. leak localisation).

The Waste Management Segment of Energie AG Group covers the entire value creation chain from waste collection to sorting and recycling/management on the highest technical level. The services are geared closely to the needs of residential, commercial/industrial and municipal customers.

The unconditional assurance of security of supply, including under extraordinary conditions (threat of supply shortages on the energy market, dramatic price increases), and the ensuing strengthening of the Company's resilience are among the top priorities of Energie AG Group.

In all activities, the asset management of Netz OÖ GmbH aims to maximise efficiency as regards security, quality and costs.

To assess the ability to perform and the security and quality of supply, key performance indicators such as available grid capacity, grid reliability, grid interruptions and their causes (interruption time >3 minutes) are determined on an annual basis. The Group then uses these findings to establish options for future action in the context of grid maintenance and expansion.

Netz OÖ GmbH operates an electricity grid consisting of 33,684 km of power lines (previous year: 33,445 km), in addition to a 5,630 km gas grid (previous year: 5,634 km). These reliable and modern grids warrant the secure energy supply for around 575,000 grid customers.

The electricity grid’s supply reliability, measured in terms of service-related unavailability (ASIDI; “Average System Interruption Duration Index”), was 32.72 min/a in calendar year 2022 (2021: 44.53 min/a). It was 1.07 [1/a] (2021: 1.10 [1/a]) when measured on the basis of the ASIFI (“Average System Interruption Frequency Index”), with the statistic in both cases disregarding regionally exceptional events. The customer-related system unavailability (SAIDI – “System Average Interruption Duration Index”) stood at 40.11 min/a (2021: 52.89 min/a), while the customer-related average interruption frequency (SAIFI - “System Average Interruption Frequency”) was 1.31 [1/a] (2021: 1.34 [1/a]). Calendar year 2022 was characterised by a number of hurricane lows in February and a striking cluster of thunderstorms in the summer month of June. As a result of the geographic realities of the supply territory of Netz OÖ GmbH, the unavailability figures in Upper Austria are usually higher than the national average for all of Austria. The availability of the gas grid in calendar year 2022 was unchanged from the previous years at 99.99%.

In the generation unit, the Group takes a holistic approach to optimise technical availability, starting with the planning and designing phase of power plants as well as by systematically developing maintenance strategies as part of due diligence measures.

In addition to the environmental measures adopted during plant design, flood protection improvements also play a crucial role in Energie AG’s run-of-river power plant construction projects. The individual steps to be taken during day-to-day operation are set out in the officially approved workplace regulations.

Telekom GmbH is responsible for the provision of preliminary telecommunications service products throughout the supply area of Energie AG as well as telecommunications and telematics services for the Group, and for setting up and operating the backbone for the external market. Telekom GmbH provides not only bandwidth but also services in the layer 3 area (internet connectivity and telephone equipment) for Vertrieb GmbH.

The availability of data connections in the fibre-optic network is determined by analysing fault resolution times from the trouble ticket system; in the reporting period, it stood at 99.98% (previous year: 99.99%). The fault resolution time designates the timespan between receipt of the fault report and the resolution of the fault. The internet data volume transported in the Telekom business area has continued to increase and stood at 111,920 terabytes (TB) in the 2022/2023 fiscal year (previous year: 88,670 TB). At the end of the reporting period, the Group's own fibre-optic network comprised around 5,880 km (previous year: 5,820 km).

Water supply availability in the Czech Republic Segment is constantly at or above 99.9%. Network quality in the drinking water sector fluctuates from year to year between 0.2 and 0.3 cases of damage per kilometre per year, mainly due to weather conditions in winter. Network quality in the waste water sector is measured at around 0.1 grid interruptions per kilometre per year.

In regions affected by climate change-related drought and increasing water scarcity, Energie AG secures the supply through subsidiaries that supply drinking water via tankers and cisterns. One measure to improve security of supply is the interregional integration of water supply systems. This enables drinking water from areas with surplus water to be sent to areas suffering from shortages. Energie AG's subsidiaries also support their contractual partners in projects aimed at securing resources with extensive know-how in the area of water management.