Swiss-based energy company MET Group has acquired a 100 per cent stake in COGEN Energía España, an integrated operator and service provider in Spain’s combined heat and power (CHP) industry, from Norwegian Arendals Fossekompani listed in Oslo. The transaction is a significant step in MET’s asset growth strategy.
COGEN Energia España has three main business lines. First, the operation of own assets, five CHP plants with a total installed capacity of 75 megawatts (MW). Secondly, leased assets and operation and maintenance services for third parties. Finally, the provision of electricity market services. The CHP assets are regulated and produce 600 gigawatts-hour (GWh) of electricity per year, with an additional 400 GWh of heat production.
“Flexibility assets are an essential part of MET Group’s integrated strategy to support the global energy transition,” said Johannes Niemetz, CFO of MET Group. “We are looking at assets that we believe we can operate efficiently, creating synergies with our existing positions in the gas and power markets. MET’s core growth in flexibility assets will be in Spain, Italy and the newly entered German market.”
Balancing and flexible energy production have become particularly important in the European power markets, as the increasing amount of intermittent renewable energy supply being fed into the grid makes matching power supply and demand ever more difficult. Technologies like CHP (combined heat and power) or CCGT (combined cycle gas turbine) plants are flexible and efficient solutions that help to balance the power grid.
With this transaction, MET Group will make its first sizeable investment in Spain’s CHP industry. MET’s competencies in natural gas and gas-based power production allow the company to better lead the energy transition from fossil-fuels based to a zero-carbon world.
