Under its “Luminus” brand, Luminus supplies electricity and gas to around 1.7 million residential and business customers (number of delivery points) in Belgium.
The company is involved in the energy services segment for residential customers, through its subsidiaries Rami Services, Dauvister, Leenen and In saver, by installing and maintaining boilers, selling and managing a smart thermostat (Netatmo),installing solar panels and providing Comfort services in the event of unforeseen damage to housing. At the end of 2018, the B2C portfolio for these last three services exceeded 175,000 contracts due to a sharp increase in sales in 2018.
For its industrial customers, Luminus together with ATS, Vanparijs, Dauvister and Newelec, offers comprehensive integrated electricity and heating solutions to industrial customers. In addition, its subsidiary Luminus Solutions (in which Luminusand Dalkia own a 51% and 49% stake respectively) is dedicated to energy efficiency services for facilities such as administrative buildings, hospitals, schools, sports facilities, swimming pools and apartment complexes on the basis of an energy performance contract.
In 2019, Luminus continued its strategy of expansion into energy services, broadening its presence upstream in the value chain with the acquisition of design firm De Klerk Engineering and ERVAC (via Newelec), specialising in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning control (HVAC). ATS also bought out Censatech, active in HVAC on the professional market (B2B2C). In another development, structuring the “complex energy solutions” business included the merger of Luminus Solutions and VMI staff.
In 2019, SOFICO Wallonie and the Luwa consortium, consisting of Citelum (lead contractor), Luminus, CFE, and DIF, entered into a PPP for the design, modernisation, financing, management, and maintenance of road lighting equipment for the main road and motorway network in the Walloon region. Maintenance, which will be conducted throughout the agreement, as well as four years of works, also commenced this year. This 20-year “Light Plan 4.0” calls for the LED upgrading of 100,000 lights and the installation of traffic and detection sensors, as well as a remote management system.
Through a joint venture, Sloe Centrale BV, the EDF group and PZEM (formerly Delta)(each holding 50%) own an 870 MW CCGT power plant in the southwest of the Netherlands, whose two 435 MW units were commissioned in 2009. Thanks to its excellent technical performance, further enhanced by recent innovations and optimised renegotiation of the maintenance agreement with Siemens (LTSA), the Sole power plant was brought into service for almost 5,000 hours between the start of the year and the end of September 2019, with a service factor of 68%, up by 15 points compared to the average over the last two years for the same period.
On 5 April 2019, EDF announced the conclusion of a binding agreement on the disposal of its stake in Alpiq. After permission was granted by the German competition authority, EDF completed the disposal of its 25.04% stake in the Swiss energy company on 28 May 2019.
EDF Deutschland GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDF International SAS based in Berlin, is in charge of the Group’s activities in Germany. This entails concentrating on new energy business models and innovative solutions to facilitate Germany’s energy shift (Energiewende). EDF Deutschland also represents the Group in leading German political and economic circles.
In June 2019, via EDF Pulse Croissance Holding, the EDF group acquired 100% of the share capital of German company Energy2market (e2m), specialising in the aggregation of renewable production and local flexibilities. e2m has a workforce of 85 employees and 2,000 customers, most of them in Germany. It manages and operates 4,500 connected, decentralised energy production and flexibility sites (wind farms, solar farms, biomass plants, etc.) with total installed capacity of over 3GW.Following this acquisition, the EDF group has become a major player on the German market for direct marketing and local flexibility. e2m’s development is being coordinated by EDF Local Energy Management (LEM).
Based in Erlangen (Bavaria), Framatome Gmbh has 3,400 employees, making the subsidiary Framatome’s second largest engineering concern in the world. Its main business is maintaining, prolonging and upgrading nuclear plants all over the world (especially Instrumentation & Control systems). It is also involved in the building of EPRs in France, Finland, China and the UK. Framatome is also active in electricity and hydrogen storage in Germany. Framatome’s other German subsidiary, Advanced Nuclear Fuels GmbH (ANF), makes fuel assemblies for PWRs (pressurised water reactors) and BWRs (boiling water reactors) in Germany and Europe and has 430 employees in Lingen (head office) and Karlstein.
Including the installed capacity of Futuren, EDF Renewables had 185.8MW of gross installed wind power capacity in Germany at 31 December 2019. The Eckölstadt windfarm was also brought back online and repowered. Repowering (or upgrading)consists of replacing old or used plant equipment. EDF Renewables also owns Off-Shore Wind Solutions (OWS), a German firm specialising in the operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms, which it acquired in 2017 via its German subsidiary REETEC, a provider of onshore and offshore wind power services (see section 1.4.1.5.4 “EDF Renewables”). In September 2019, EDF Renewables announced that it had acquired a portfolio of wind farm projects with total capacity of around 300 MW currently under development in Germany from German company Altus AG.
At the April 2019 Hanover Fair, the international meeting-place for the industry sector, EDF announced the creation of Hynamics, a new subsidiary of the Group tasked with providing a high-performance, low-carbon hydrogen offering for industry and mobility. Germany is one of the target countries for the development of Hynamics.
In October 2019, EDF Deutschland bought a 33.3% stake in Hypion GmbH, a company that originates and develops hydrogen-related projects in the north of Germany. Electranova Capital holds a stake of around 13.4% in Sunfire, a Dresden-based company which develops high-temperature electrolysers(Power-to-Gas and Power-to-Liquids).
The Group owns 50% of a run-of-river hydropower plant located in Iffezheim on the Rhine River (148MW, 5 turbines, extension work on this plant was completed in 2013).
The EDF group also has storage for natural gas in salt cavities located in Etzel in Lower Saxony. The aboveground facilities are operated through a 50/50 joint-venture with EnBW (see section 1.4.6.2.2 “Gas assets and projects”). Via its subsidiary EDFGas Deutschland, EDF also holds a 16% stake in BEP gas pipelines(Bunde-Etzel Pipelinegesellschaft).
EDF Deutschland increased its stake in the share capital of Ubitricity to 18.94%. TheBerlin-based start-up offers a street lamp charging solution for electric vehicles. It Innovations will further enrich the EDF group’s electric mobility offering.
EIFER, a research centre which reports to EDF’s R&D Department, is based in Karlsruhe and has more than 110 employees. Its work focuses on the optimisation of energy resources and decentralised generation (integration of renewables), energy in cities and local communities as well as energy conservation and the environment(electro-mobility, Power-to-Gas, Smart Cities).
Lastly, EDF Trading actively participates on commodities market in Germany, especially the intraday and gas markets.
The EDF group is present in Russia in the energy services sector via Dalkia Rus, a subsidiary of Dalkia (see section 1.4.6.1.1 “Dalkia”).
At 31 December 2019, the EDF group held 31.48% of the capital of Elcogas, a320MW power plant of the ICCG type (Integrated Combined-Cycle Gasification),alongside Endesa Generación (40.99%), Iberdrola Generación (12.0%) and EDFEspaña (8.54%). As the profitability of the power plant was no longer assured, it was disconnected from the network in 2016 and its dismantling was initiated. In 2017, Elcogas agreed to sell land and facilities to Ence, a pulp manufacturer. TheShareholders’ Meeting on 13 May 2019 resolved to dissolve the company and place it in liquidation. The company will retain its legal structure during liquidation.
