Vattenfall Europe AG's nuclear plant accidents, including a fire at its Kruemmel station, are driving demand for environmentally oriented power, Greenpeace Energy eG Chief Executive Officer Robert Werner said.
Greenpeace Energy, which resells electricity from wind farms, solar parks and hydropower facilities in Germany, has gained twice as many new customers as it did a year earlier in areas where Vattenfall supplies power, Werner said in an interview Sept. 26.
The company controls about 10 percent of the country's market for so-called green electricity, and expects its sales to increase 15 percent in 2008, at the upper end of its usual 10 to 15 percent range, he said.
Vattenfall Europe, Germany's fourth-largest utility, proposed changes to improve the security of its Kruemmel and Brunsbuettel nuclear plants this year after incidents including a transformer fire. German household power customers are free to change providers, and have been urged to do so by politicians including Economy Minister Michael Glos.
“We've noticed that in the regions that Vattenfall supplies, we've had a clear increase in customer growth,'' Werner said. The nuclear plant incidents are “the best advertisement for us.''
Greenpeace Energy has about 64,000 customers in Germany. The company draws 75 percent of its power from hydro plants, 10 percent from windmills, 1 percent from solar parks and the rest from other government-approved renewable sources. It also builds, owns and operates renewable-energy facilities.
Both Kruemmel and Brunsbuettel halted on June 28 after the fire at Kruemmel and a short circuit in the power network near Brunsbuettel. Klaus Rauscher, chief executive officer of Vattenfall Europe, resigned after the incidents, which led to protracted shutdowns costing the company about 1 million euros ($1.41 million) a day.
