Tuesday 11 April 2017

EU approves joint venture for smart grid expansion

The European Commission has approved the creation of a joint venture focused on smart grid expansion.

Siemens and Allgäuer Überlandwerk’s (AÜW) new company will operate under the name of egrid applications & consulting (egrid).

It is currently solely controlled by the latter firm but Siemens is expected to get a 49% share.

The joint venture will provide energy consulting services on decentralised electricity networks, primarily in Germany.

The main action areas will be the integration of large capacities from distributed generation plants and intelligent control of the distribution grids.

Siemens has worldwide activities in several areas, in particular digitalisation, automatisation and electrification while AÜW is a local energy supplier and operator of a distribution network in Allgäu.

The Commission stated: “The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerns due to the limited activities of the joint venture.”

Earlier this year, the joint venture announced plans to commercially implement the results of two smart grid technology research projects.