18 December 2008 - E.ON, one of Germany's top power providers, said it has agreed to sell over 2200 MW of generation capacity to Belgian rival Electrabel and German peer EnBW as part-settlement of an antitrust case brought by the EU.
The EU Commission last month approved E.ON's plan, issued in early 2008, to shed a total 5,000 MW of power capacity and to sell off its German high-voltage power grid.
"Only weeks after the Commission's approval, we are setting on track the implementation of measures that will stimulate competition," Dusseldorf, Germany-based E.ON said on Wednesday.
Under the deal, Electrabel, part of the French GDF Suez group, would receive around 1700 MW of generating capacity and power procurement rights in Germany in exchange for similar rights to be given to E.ON in Belgium, securing E.ON a share of over 12 per cent of Belgium's power market.
A plan to build a coal-to-power station in Antwerp by 2014 would strengthen that position even further, it said.
Separately, EnBW and E.ON have signed a memorandum for EnBW to acquire stakes in E.ON's brown coal-fired Lippendorf (446 MW) and hard coal-fired Bexbach (79 MW) generation plants.
E.ON said it would obtain from Electrabel the hard coal-fired power plant in Langerlo (556 MW), gas-fired Vilvoorde (385 MW) plus 770 MW of procurement rights from the Doel 1, Doel 2 and Tihange 1 nuclear power stations.
Electrabel would buy from E.ON the German Farge (350 MW) and Zolling (449 MW) hard coal-fired power plants, among other smaller assets.
Electrabel would also buy an aggregate 700 MW of power procurement rights totalling 700 MW from the Kruemmel, Grundremmingen and Unterweser nuclear power plants.
E.ON said the deal would be signed in the first half of 2009.
An E.ON spokesman said the company would also like to dispose of another 2100 MW of power capacity in the EU deal via asset swaps, with the remaining 750 MW sell-off commitments already counted in under a July asset swap deal with Norway's Statkraft.