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Uniper Completes Sale of Ruhr District Heating Unit

Uniper SE said Monday it had completed the divestment of Uniper Waerme GmbH, a district heating network serving over 14,400 customers in Germany’s Ruhr area, to Steag Iqony Group’s Iqony Fernwaerme GmbH. Waerme is among the assets that the German power and gas utility agreed to sell to fulfill fair-competition guardrails imposed by the European […]

Uniper SE said Monday it had completed the divestment of Uniper Waerme GmbH, a district heating network serving over 14,400 customers in Germany’s Ruhr area, to Steag Iqony Group’s Iqony Fernwaerme GmbH.

Waerme is among the assets that the German power and gas utility agreed to sell to fulfill fair-competition guardrails imposed by the European Commission in approving Uniper’s bailout by the government in late 2022.

Waerme has a network of over 750 kilometers (466.03 miles), according to Uniper. Waerme “is an expert in the efficient use of heat that is generated during electricity production in combined heat and power plants”, Uniper said in a press release. “In addition, they use a variety of other environmentally friendly alternatives for heat generation. This includes heat from mine gas, waste heat from industrial processes and heat generated in electric boilers and smaller decentralized CHP plants”.

In the initial announcement of the transaction on August 4, Waerme managing director Nikola Feldmann said, “We are pleased to have found a buyer in the Steag Iqony Group that will continue on the path we have taken and be a reliable employer for our around 130 colleagues”.

The companies did not disclose the transaction price.

Earlier Uniper said it had signed an agreement to sell the Datteln IV coal-run power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia to ResInvest Group AS, toward the satisfaction of the bailout conditions.

Commissioned 2020, the Datteln plant has a net output of 1,052 megawatts (MW). It supplies electricity and district heating to households, as well as traction power to rail operator Deutsche Bahn, according to Uniper.

The over 100 employees at the site will transfer to Czechia’s ResInvest, Uniper said in an online statement September 19.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, it said.

In July Uniper said it had sold its 18.26 percent stake in AS Latvijas Gaze, which is involved in natural gas trading and sales in the Baltics, to co-venturer Energy Investments SIA.

Latvijas Gaze sells gas in Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. In Latvia’s household sector, it is the biggest gas supplier, Latvijas Gaze says on its website.

In February Uniper completed the sale of its North American power portfolio. The sale covered “power purchase and sale contracts and energy management agreements in the North American power markets ERCOT (North, South, West and Houston), WEST (WECC and CAISO) and CENTRAL (MISO and SPP) through a number of transactions with several counterparties”, Uniper said then.

The North American dispositions excluded Uniper’s gas portfolio and hydrogen-related assets.

In January Uniper completed the sale of its natural gas-fired power plant in Gonyu, Hungary, to the local subsidiary of France’s Veolia SA. Commissioned 2011, the power plant generates up to 430 MW, according to Uniper.

In the other divestments completed as part of the bailout conditions, Uniper in May 2023 sold its marine fuel trading business in the United Arab Emirates and its 20 percent indirect stake in the BBL gas pipeline between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The other assets in the divestment package agreed with the European Commission, which must be completed 2026, consist of an 84 percent stake in Unipro in Russia, a 20 percent stake in the OPAL pipeline and Uniper’s international helium business, Uniper says on its website.

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OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

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