MET Group acquires CHP power plants in Spain
On 28 July 2021, MET Group signed a share purchase agreement with Arendals Fossekompani (AFK ASA), a Norwegian holding company listed in Oslo, on the 100% acquisition of COGEN Energia España S.L.U and its subsidiaries. COGEN is an integrated owner, operator and service provider in Spain’s CHP industry with 30 years of market expertise.
COGEN Energia España has three main business lines: 1: Operation of own assets – five CHP plants with a total installed capacity of 75 MW; 2: Leased assets and operation & maintenance services for third parties; 3: Provision of electricity market services. The CHP assets are regulated and produce 600 GWh of electricity per year, with an additional 400 GWh of heat production.
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 competences in natural gas and gas-based power production allows the company to better lead the energy transition from fossil-fuels based to zero-carbon world.
Johannes Niemetz, CFO of MET Group commented on the acquisition: “Flexibility assets are an essential part of MET Group’s integrated strategy to support the global energy transition. 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.”
MET Group
MET Group is an integrated European energy company, headquartered in Switzerland, with activities in natural gas and power markets. MET is present in 14 countries through subsidiaries, 25 national gas markets and 22 international trading hubs. In 2020, MET Group’s consolidated sales revenue amounted to EUR 11,2 billion, the volume of natural gas traded was 71 BCM.