RWE Energy and Siemens Kick Off E-Energy Joint Project in a Consortium with Other Partners


Erlangen/Dortmund, Germany, November 10, 2008

Development and demonstration of decentrally networked energy systems for an E-Energy marketplace of the future

On November 10, 2008, a consortium consisting of RWE Energy, Siemens Energy, ef.Ruhr (Association of the Energy Technology Faculties of the Universities of Duisburg/Essen, Bochum and Dortmund), Miele, SWK (Krefeld Group of Municipal Utilities) and ProSyst began practical implementation of their joint project for the "Development and demonstration of decentrally networked energy systems for the E-Energy marketplace of the future", or "E-DeMa" for short. In March of this year, the consortium was awarded a prize in the "E-Energy" competition sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology to further develop this technology.

The project is focused on developing and implementing integrated concepts to harness and exploit the optimization potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) in decentralized electricity markets. "For us, further development of networks and power system management through sophisticated communications technology in order to create a smart grid offers a great opportunity. With this project we will show that together with our partners from the energy industry and from research, we will use this opportunity to develop innovative ideas and to implement them as well," commented Ralf Christian, CEO of the Power Distribution Division in the Siemens Energy Sector. "The project will allow us to meet the increasing demands on distribution networks due to the growing number of decentralized feed-in points, and to counter political pressure to find incentive systems for reducing energy consumption. This includes concrete measures for improving power system management and concepts for new services and new product offerings for domestic and commercial customers," stated Dr. Joachim Schneider, a member of the Board of Directors of RWE Energy.

The project's goal is to establish a marketplace for commercial and private electricity customers. In the course of this project, these electricity customers will be linked via communications technologies to an open electronic marketplace, and will thus be connected to energy traders, distribution network operators and other active players within model regions. This will result in new product offerings and services as private and commercial electricity customers play a more active role in the market, and utilities develop expanded business models. Modern, reliable management of power distribution networks, in-house applications as well as the acquisition and provision of consumption data are all part of the scope of the project. The goal is to combine power technology with information and communication technology to create an "energy information hub." The pilot projects will be implemented in the distribution network areas of RWE Rhein-Ruhr AG and SWK Energie.

The German government's E-Energy funding program is developing and testing new approaches for optimizing the power supply through the use of modern information and communications technologies (ICT) in six model regions. In the program, initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology (BMWi), research and development activities have been funded with a total of about EUR 60 million in interdepartmental partnership with the Federal Ministry for Environment, Conservation and Reactor Safety (BMU). This mobilizes a total volume of about EUR 140 million. E-Energy is intended to harness the optimization potential of ICT to achieve greater cost-efficiency, supply reliability and climate and environmental compatibility in the area of power supply. In this way, E-Energy will ensure substantial growth and employment potential in Germany as an industrial base, and permanently reduce dependency on energy imports.

The Siemens Energy Sector is the world's leading supplier of a complete spectrum of products, services and solutions for the generation, transmission and distribution of power and for the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and gas. In fiscal 2007 (ended September 30), the Energy Sector had revenues of approximately EUR20.3 billion and received new orders totaling around EUR28.5 billion and posted a profit of EUR1.8 billion. The Energy Sector had a work force of 73,500 at the beginning of fiscal 2008. Further information is available at: http://www.siemens.com/energy.

RWE Energy is the RWE Group's sales and grid company for Continental Europe. In a total of 12 regions, including six abroad, RWE Energy offers electricity, gas, water and related services from a one-stop shop. Customers include residential households, commercial operations, business and industrial customers as well as municipal and regional utilities. Supraregional electricity and gas grid operations as well as the storage of gas are handled by independent companies. Together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, RWE Energy supplies 15.5 million customers with electricity and 7.6 million customers with gas. In 2007, sales totalled 168.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 258.0 billion kilowatt-hours of gas. With its 28,323 employees, RWE Energy generated total revenues of 28.5 billion in 2007, which makes it one of the leading utility companies in Europe. http://www.rwe.com/rweenergy

Press Contacts:

Siemens AG
Media Relations Energy Sector
Alfons Benzinger
Phone: +49 9131 18 7034
Mobile: +49 160 90113719
E-mail: alfons.benzinger@siemens.com

RWE Energy AG
Head of Communication, Press officer
Sebastian Ackermann
Phone: +49 (0)231-438-3022
Mobile: +49 (0)172-202 89 79
E-mail sebastian.ackermann@rwe.com

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