E.ON in the Nordic Region
We’re engaged in all phases of energy generation and supply in the Nordic region. We have 6.6 GW of installed power generating capacity, around 30 percent of which is nearly zero-emission hydro and wind. We also generate heat and produce biomethane for use as a vehicle fuel. We operate regulated power, gas, and heat distribution systems serving a total of over 1 million customers, mainly in south and east-central Sweden. We sell power, heat, and gas to 1.1 million customers, mainly in Sweden but also in Denmark and Finland. Across all these businesses, we focus on providing low-carbon energy solutions and on helping our customers and communities become more sustainable.
| Installed capacity | 6.6 GW |
| Installed capacity (renewables) | 2.2 GW |
| Share of owned generation by renewables | 39.9 % |
| Power sales | 17.7 TWh |
| Gas sales | 5.5 TWh |
| Customers | 1.1 Mio |
| Employees | 3,800 |
Our Sustainability Effort in the Nordic Region
Two departments at E.ON Sverige’s headquarters in Malmö are responsible for managing our sustainability effort in the Nordic region: Corporate Sustainability (which is part of Stakeholder Management) and Health, Safety, and Environment (which is part of HR). They provide expert support on these issues to all E.ON entities in the region and work closely with other headquarters departments such as Compliance, Procurement, Diversity, Brand Insight, Sponsoring, and Corporate Culture.
Our generation portfolio in the Nordic region consists largely of climate-friendly nuclear, hydro, and wind capacity. But we want to make our operations even cleaner. We aim to cut our carbon emissions by 4 million metric tons between 2006 and 2015. By the end of 2012, we had already achieved 3.65 million metric tons toward this objective, mainly by upgrading our hydroelectric stations, enhancing the efficiency of our nuclear assets, and adding new wind capacity. We also reduced electricity consumption at our own facilities. In addition, we help our customers shrink their carbon footprint by marketing energy-efficient products and services and by helping to make mobility more sustainable by supplying carbon-neutral biomethane to 55 fueling stations across Sweden.
In 2012 we continued our efforts to make our communities better places to live. The Energy Fund, our joint project with the Swedish Football Association, has so far helped finance energy-efficiency measures for 216 Swedish soccer clubs and given over 3,300 clubs advice on how to reduce their energy consumption. We intend to extend the Energy Fund, which has received awards and recognition in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, for three more years (2013-2015) and to broaden its scope. In 2012 we also continued our partnership with the Swedish Swimming Federation to promote swimming as a healthy lifelong activity and an important safety skill. In particular, we sponsor School Swim, a swim instruction program for elementary school children. In 2012 almost 270 schools participated in this program. We also sponsor Swimming Ability Day, which was marked by 125 events across Sweden in 2012. For more details on school swimming see margin note links.
We know there’s a strong correlation between our employees’ health status and their ability to perform tasks skillfully and safely. That’s why we strive to maintain a healthy work environment and do what we can to encourage our employees to make healthy choices off the job as well. We’re also committed to developing a robust safety culture. Safety starts at the top: nearly all of our 100 top managers have completed health and safety culture training and regularly conduct safety walks at facilities in their area of responsibility. We’ve also taken a series of steps to ensure that our contractors meet our high safety standards.
Best Practices
Energizing Young Minds
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Today’s kids will play a vital role in making tomorrow’s world more sustainable. We’re helping to prepare them through Energy for Children (EfC), our award-winning international program to support energy and environmental education for children and teenagers. Its purpose is to make kids energy aware, environmentally literate, and climate conscious from a young age.
One of our EfC projects in Sweden is a traveling interactive energy exhibit designed primarily for children aged at grades 3 to 9. It consists of 150 square meters of models, experiments, games, videos, and graphics that explain, in a fun and engaging way, topics like the pros and cons of different energy sources, their environmental impact, how electricity is produced, and how to use less of it. E.ON docents are on hand to offer assistance and answer questions. We’ve also developed a learning module called “Want to become an energy genius?” which can be used in conjunction with the exhibit or on its own. In partnership with a charitable organization called Givewatts, we donate a solar lamp to a school in Kenya in the name of each school in Sweden visited by our exhibit.
Between November 2011 and September 2012, the exhibit was seen by almost 3,000 children and 200 teachers. The teachers’ feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. In 2013 the exhibit will visit more schools in Sweden and in Denmark. For more information about the exhibit and its tour schedule, see margin note link (Swedish only).
Smartening up Homes: Thinking Energy
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Homes are responsible for one quarter of Europe’s carbon emissions. For Europe to meet its climate-protection targets, homes need to become more sustainable and smarter. More sustainable means using energy more efficiently and conserving resources. Smarter means being able to integrate micro generation units, electric vehicles, and active energy management and to function as part of a smart grid.
We’re showcasing some of the technologies that will make this possible in a program called Thinking Energy, which we’ve launched in three countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. Its aims are to teach us more about smart and efficient technologies, to raise public awareness of their benefits, and to promote their adoption. Our main Thinking Energy project in Sweden is in Västra Hamnen, in Malmö. Here, we partnered with other companies to construct Hållbarheten, an eight-unit apartment building incorporating the latest energy-efficient technologies and low-carbon building techniques. Combined with Malmö’s existing smart-meter network, the project has resulted in one of Europe’s smartest streets and will form the nucleus of a larger sustainable housing development. Six families moved into Hållbarheten in 2012. We’re looking forward to learning about their experience living in an energy-smart home.
Thinking Energy is about showcasing technologies but also about sharing knowledge. We take the lessons learned in our projects in all three countries and share them across our markets so that we can help our customers throughout Europe to find the best solutions for smartening up their homes and shrinking their carbon footprints. For more information about Thinking Energy, see maring note link (Swedish only).
