Impulse #24: Anticipating change

"ENGIE in Germany can look back on a good and intensive few months. With this energy, we will continue to drive the transformation forward in 2025."

A few days ago, I stumbled across a quote from the Roman philosopher Seneca: "What you think is the summit is only a step." This statement has been on my mind ever since. Because it sums up the past year for me extremely aptly. I am pleased to be able to say at this point that we at ENGIE in Germany have had an intensive and good few months. In view of the political and economic situation - in Germany, in Europe, in the USA and worldwide - this is by no means a matter of course. Our times are characterized by striking changes at a rapid pace. For companies, this means that they need a high degree of flexibility and adaptability all the more if they want to remain fit for the future.

Driving the transformation process forward

Over the past few months, we have set the course for this at ENGIE in Germany. Our entire team has been working intensively on the question of what our company stands for, what distinguishes us at our core and, yes, also clearly differentiates us from other market players. Of course, this was not always an easy process. Because we take these questions extremely seriously. And we take our employees' answers just as seriously. For this reason, we toured all over Germany in June and July with the "ONE ENGIE" roadshow - and listened and listened carefully. Because bottom-up communication is not just an empty phrase at ENGIE, but a fundamental part of our open and committed corporate culture. The fact that I myself had the opportunity to experience the roadshow on site at several of the 21 locations, get to know so many people and talk to them, is one of my personal highlights of the year. And I am convinced that this has done our company good, inspired us and set our internal transformation process in motion. There was a lot of praise from our employees, but also some critical comments, all of which will be incorporated into our future transformation strategy. Above all, however, we reached and mobilized 2,300 employees personally on our tour, across all business areas. This was unprecedented in our company's history, and it gave our team a noticeable boost. We have come closer together this year, we are now working more closely together at ENGIE in Germany across all elements of the value chain. That is a wonderful realization at the end of the year.

On the road to climate neutrality

I believe that it is precisely this special team spirit that has enabled us to enjoy successful projects in all business areas this year. I would like to present a small selection here. For the team in the Energy Solutions business division, 2024 started with a fantastic order for the town of Tettnang in Baden-Württemberg: in future, we will be implementing a heating supply system for 14 public buildings using 100% renewable energy - a model project for towns and municipalities throughout Germany that want to make their heating networks green. Our colleagues in the Networks business division are currently working on the SaltHy project in Harsefeld near Stade, Lower Saxony, to build one of the first ever hydrogen storage facilities in Germany on an industrial scale and thus drive forward the market ramp-up for hydrogen in Europe. In the GEMS business area, we are pleased to have signed a long-term biomethane offtake agreement with BASF: as part of this agreement, we will supply the chemical company with 2.7 to 3.0 terawatt hours of certified biomethane as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels in production at its sites in Ludwigshafen (Germany) and Antwerp (Belgium) over the next seven years - an important building block for BASF in reducing its product carbon footprint (PCF) and thus supporting the company's sustainable transformation. Our employees in the Energy Solutions business area are also taking an important step together with the pharmaceutical company Grünenthal: in summer, we inaugurated the largest open-space photovoltaic system in the city of Aachen, which comprises around 4,000 modules and enables our customer to save around 366 tons of CO₂ per year. And last but not least, we successfully completed the repowering of the Querstedt-Badingen wind farm in the Renewables segment: by dismantling eleven old turbines and erecting three new wind turbines within two years, we have quadrupled energy generation on the same area - another contribution to the efficient and sustainable energy transition.

Our contribution to a sustainable energy future

Dear readers, you may have noticed that I have a positive view of what we have achieved as ENGIE in Germany in 2024. At the same time, I would like to recall Seneca: we are only at the beginning. Our company's ambition is to actively drive forward the energy transition in Germany and make a contribution to a sustainable energy future. We are facing nothing less than the fundamental transformation of our energy landscape. In my view, we can be very proud of our operational project successes. However, it is at least as important to keep looking at the big picture.

Forward with energy

We still face complex challenges. 2025 will undoubtedly be a challenging year. How the political framework will be shaped in concrete terms remains unclear until the general election and the subsequent coalition agreements in the coming months. Irrespective of this, however, we can expect to see changes to CO₂ pricing based on the EU decision, for example. The CO₂ factor will increasingly be monetized in order to promote climate protection in buildings. In the coming months, it will be a matter of constructively balancing this political steering effect, the competitiveness of industry and the economy and social compatibility for our German households. And there are many similar issues that need to be resolved in the coming months. As ENGIE in Germany, we see it as our task to build on our successes from 2024 and to consistently drive forward our mission to accompany you, our customers, on your transformation path to the summit with all our energy and expertise.

With this in mind, I would like to thank you for your trust, for the valuable encounters and for the successes we have achieved together this year. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in 2025 - and especially to exchanging ideas with you by email, on LinkedIn or in person at the Handelsblatt Energy Summit in Berlin from January 21 to 23, 2025!

Yours

Eric Staff
Chairman of the Board of Management of ENGIE Deutschland AG