Our core strategies 2030

We are committed to making a significant contribution to meeting Austrian and European climate goals.
This commitment is underscored by the preparation of a 1.5°C transition plan.
A central measure for the attainment of our goals is the expansion of our renewable generation capacity in our core markets of Lower Austria, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, especially in the areas of wind power and photovoltaics. Plans call for an increase in our annual renewable electricity production to roughly 3.8 TWh by 2030.
The increasing surplus production from renewable generation requires innovative approaches for the efficient cross-sector use of energy. We are actively working on initiatives that will allow green electricity to also support decarbonisation in other areas like the heat and transport sectors. For this purpose, we are investing in the expansion of the e-charging infrastructure and in the increased use of heat pumps.
In addition to sector coupling, we are working on projects to store the surplus production from renewable energy. Concrete projects involve the operation of large battery storage systems and the generation and storage of green hydrogen.

An efficient, high-performance and digital electricity network infrastructure is the requirement for an CO₂-free energy system. The steadily increasing feed-in of wind and solar electricity combined with changes in consumption behaviour – above all, through e-mobility and the transformation of the heating sector – require substantial expansion in our network areas. We are therefore realising an ambitious investment programme in the coming years. It covers the installation of additional power lines at all voltage levels as well as the construction of further transformer stations and substations.
In addition to these construction projects, we are increasing our focus on digitalisation. The use of smart technologies and applications in network operations optimises load management as well as the feed-in and use of green electricity, above all during production peaks. Intelligent digital network controls will allow us to optimise the necessary hardware investments.
The infrastructure previously used for natural gas is being prepared for the future transport of hydrogen and renewable gas.

The transformation of the energy system is changing the roles and behaviour of our customers. Private electricity generation with photovoltaic equipment and separate storage batteries, heat pumps and e-charging stations are converting electricity customers into active participants on the energy market.
Our claim is to support these developments with special services and offerings as a way of meeting the changing needs of our customers. Based on our expertise in the energy sector, we are also developing software solutions and applications that will allow our customers to easily and reliably participate in the energy market, for example through energy communities.
EVN’s strategy for all customer groups involves the consequent digitalisation of our marketing processes to make internal operations more efficient and thereby continuously improve the service quality and offering for our customers.

As in the energy business, the highest possible claims for supply security and quality also apply to our drinking water business in Lower Austria. Developments like the increase in water consumption due to demographic changes and the rising number of weather-related consumption peaks make additional investments in drinking water supplies unavoidable in the coming years.
These investments will focus on the expansion of cross-regional pipeline networks and capacity increases in the pump plants. These measures will guarantee that sufficient water resources can be distributed as efficiently as possible into all regions of our supply area.
We are also investing continuously in the improvement of the water quality. For this purpose, we are constructing natural filter plants that soften and purify the water physically with membrane technology – in other words, without the use of chemicals.

EVN operates a modern, ecologically optimised thermal waste utilisation plant in Lower Austria. The energy gained from waste incineration is used to generate electricity and district heat.
Based on our know-how and our many years of experience in thermal waste utilisation, we also operate thermal sewage sludge utilisation plants that generate electricity and district heat.
This knowledge is flowing into our evaluations for the construction of a further plant for the thermal treatment of sewage sludge, whereby we plan to recover phosphorous from the sewage sludge.