Wind power for affordable cars

The Casimcea power plant, one of Europe's largest onshore wind farms with 88 wind turbines and a total installed capacity of 226 MW, is owned by VERBUND. At the sidelines, Axpo’s subsidiary in Bucharest was involved in the deal too: Since 2017, VERBUND has been supplying Romanian end customers in the industrial segment with electricity and green electricity certificates from its own wind power generation of almost 1,000 GWh per year as part of a distribution partnership with Axpo Energy Romania. In this context, Axpo acts as a service provider to VERBUND and supports Austria’s leading electricity company when it comes to acquiring new business. Axpo’s know-how as a forerunner when it comes to marketing renewable energies all over Europe is definitely an advantage in the frame of the partnership with VERBUND. In addition, Axpo is specialized in the power purchase agreements business in many markets in Europe, including PPAs for energy-intensive large corporates – such as Dacia. 

Domenico Franceschino, Head Origination Western & Eastern Europe at Axpo, comments: “Step by step, the Romanian energy markets have started to follow nowadays’ mega energy trends, such as digitalization, decentralization, decarbonization, and e-mobility. In this context, VERBUND and Axpo teamed up some years ago. We started to cooperate with VERBUND in structuring corporate PPAs for large industrial consumers. Having been able to acquire Dacia as a new customer for VERBUND is a major milestone for our partnership.”

PPA, a megatrend in the field of renewable energies

The local business activities in Romania are part of Axpo’s strategy of constantly expanding its international presence and business specializing in tailor-made energy solutions for its customers in recent years. Meanwhile, the company is present in 28 countries, active in 39 markets in Europe and the United States, and works closely with industrial companies, producers, energy supply companies, SME's as well as market players from the area of renewable energies.

There is a clear trend towards power purchase agreements in many energy markets around the globe, demand is rising constantly and PPAs are becoming the measure of all things in the renewable energy sector. The number of PPAs concluded worldwide recently reached a new peak. The trend indicates that in the future power purchase agreements in general, and so-called “corporate PPAs” with large companies in particular will increase significantly. Especially energy-intensive end consumers are interested in medium- to long-term fixed price contracts for green electricity as more and more companies want to secure a long-term, cost-effective and reliable energy supply from renewable sources. For providers and brokers of power supply and purchase agreements such as Axpo, this has offered an opportunity for additional business because the uncertainty of power prices and volumes has increased for both renewable energy producers and consumers. That’s why long-term power supply and purchase agreements are one of Axpo's greatest growth fields.