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Issue title:

Interview with Georg Friedrichs, CEO of GASAG

Publication date:
06.09.2024
In this issue:

I hope that you, dear readers, were able to enjoy a relaxing holiday in July or August. In terms of energy business and energy policy, July was a busy month. A key event was, of course, the submission of the hydrogen core grid application by the transmission system operators (TSOs) on 22 July. But even in the last days before the final submission, the TSOs had to overcome some hurdles. The smallest (in terms of kilometres of transmission grid) of all the TSOs had doubts as to whether the EU Commission's state aid approval was really watertight. But read about it in this issue. Without wanting to pour too much water onto the euphoria that prevailed when the application was submitted: How many kilometres of hydrogen core grid will actually be built is entirely open. The 10,000 or so kilometres mentioned in the application will probably not be achieved. A source close to many TSOs told me very clearly that the financing concept is so unattractive to the shareholders of many TSOs that only small investments will be made.

In July, the latest version of the power plant strategy was published and IPCEI grant notifications were ceremoniously handed over. One reason for the activity was an alleged agreement on the 2025 federal budget and thus on the future financing concept for the Climate and Transformation Fund. Unfortunately, like many things with this government, this agreement turned out to be a chimera.

TOPIC OF THE MONTH: Interview with Georg Friedrichs, CEO of GASAG

The acronym GASAG once stood for ‘Berliner Gaswerke AG’. And even though the company has evolved from a local gas supplier to an energy company, the GASAG Group remains the largest local German gas supplier with around 14,000 kilometres of pipeline grid and almost 765,000 installed gas meters. The decarbonisation of the heat market therefore represents a particular challenge for the Berlin-based supplier. Georg Friedrichs has been the company's CEO for three years. The lawyer previously worked for GASAG shareholder Vattenfall for around 20 years in various management positions and was for example responsible for the realisation of large offshore wind projects. I spoke to him about the future of the natural gas business and the alternatives. There was one surprise for me during the conversation: GASAG is one of the 16 local and regional distribution grid operators who incorporated pipelines into the hydrogen core grid. Mr Friedrichs explained the reasons.