Vienna Insurance Group and Wien Energie implement Austria-wide energy community
Vienna Insurance Group, the leading insurance group in Central and Eastern Europe becomes a green electricity producer powered by Wien Energie.
Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) is aiming to generate its own renewable electricity and share it between the company's buildings throughout Austria. In order to implement this, the VIG Energy Community was founded together with Wien Energie. In the future, the energy community will supply green energy to more than half of all VIG sites in Austria, including those that do not generate energy directly. With a total generation of around three gigawatt hours of green energy per year from solar and wind power, the energy community offers a very high production volume. VIG’s community is therefore not only the first Austria-wide energy community, but also one of the most powerful energy communities in Austria. Wien Energie is a very capable partner in this respect and provides assistance with a wide range of services.
"We are happy to support Vienna Insurance Group’s vision to establish a national energy community and thus as a company make a significant contribution to the energy transition. Wien Energie is providing a wind turbine from the Unterlaa wind farm and a photovoltaic system in Simmering. Combining wind and solar power is the ideal solution, as the company needs the most energy during the day and the electricity generated is therefore used directly", says Michael Strebl, CEO of Wien Energie.
The energy community enables us to significantly increase the security of supply at VIG sites. It is already capable of covering more than 55 percent of the electricity requirements of buildings used by our Group. In the future, the plan is to supply green electricity to our third-party real estate portfolio in addition to the sites we use ourselves. In so doing, we are taking another consistent step towards aligning VIG's real estate portfolio with the taxonomy regulations. We are delighted that Wien Energie is working with us as we create a network for our properties in Austria.
Networking together and shaping the future
The VIG Energy Community has a total of six photovoltaic systems and four wind farms. This figure is set to increase over the coming years. This will result in savings of around 1,300 tonnes of CO2 each year. Wien Energie provides support with a wide range of services, from advice, energy-related design and start-up support right up to the implementation of technical processes. Wien Energie also handles ongoing administration such as contract management and transparent billing within the sites. At the end of the year, the VIG Energy Community will gain access to a digital platform for administration. This allows contracts and invoices to be retrieved and electricity and cost flows to be continuously tracked on dashboards. By outsourcing the administration and maintenance to Wien Energie, the insurance company saves time and resources and is guaranteed a smooth-running energy community.
Working with Wien Energie to establish the energy community
With the entry into force of the Renewable Energy Expansion Act [Erneuerbaren-Ausbau-Gesetz], energy communities can now be established throughout Austria. Energy communities can unite communities, public authorities, companies and even private households to jointly produce renewable energy and to share and use this energy across property boundaries. As well as supporting the expansion of renewable energy and saving CO2, this also results in financial savings, depending on the model. Wien Energie is happy to advise on all related questions. More information is available at: https://www.wienenergie.at/business/energiegemeinschaften/
