A Concept for the Energy Transition
Interview with Sebastian Haag, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Bruchsal GmbH
In times of heating transition and massively increased energy costs, municipal utilities are under pressure across the board. Stadtwerke Bruchsal has now presented a detailed concept of how the energy transition should be shaped in their city - and has already begun implementation quickly and decisively.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Haag, at the beginning of 2025, the supervisory board of the Stadtwerke Bruchsal adopted a comprehensive strategy for the transformation program with which you intend to implement the energy and heat transition in Bruchsal - what are the main pillars of this concept?
Sebastian Haag: We were fortunate that there was already a municipal energy master plan for Bruchsal, which we could build upon in developing our holistic strategy: This should now serve as a guide for the citizens of our city, for politicians, and also for our employees. In our strategy paper, we initially described – for each business area – the specific market conditions, the expectations for the future, and the investment needs. We are forecasting a total investment volume of 275 million EUR by 2045, which corresponds to about a doubling of our annual investment amounts, as well as an increase in our balance sheet to more than three times its current value.
Although increasingly targeted structured financial products are offered on the capital market for such projects, when it comes to basic public services, the political structures from the federal level to the local community ultimately also have a responsibility: Because in the end, the energy transition must remain affordable for both citizens and industry. We are pleased that, as a municipal utility, together with the city, we can tackle the energy transition locally with such a comprehensive concept, thereby taking responsibility for the future energy supply for our citizens and industry.
Wirtschaftsforum: How ambitious are the goals of your community in this regard?
Sebastian Haag: With this strategy paper, we wanted to be honest about the achievable goals: While the European Union aims to be CO2-neutral by 2050, the federal government wants to achieve this goal by 2045, and the state of Baden-Württemberg by 2040. With our comprehensive transformation concept, we now have a strong foundation on which we can enter into a dialogue with political decision-makers and clearly present to them the costs associated with complete decarbonization by a certain deadline. For the moment, we assume that our transformation concept will be completed by 2045.
Wirtschaftsforum: What were the substantive outcomes of this strategy development?
Sebastian Haag: We have carefully identified which renewable energies will be important for us in the future - the result was that wind power will have a greater significance for us than, for example, photovoltaic systems. We have already been able to submit the permit application for the construction of our wind farm - an important step also to show the general public that we will quickly move to implementation: Because people now naturally expect concrete measures soon. At the same time, we are already upgrading our geothermal power station, which, along with large heat pumps, is intended to be the centerpiece of our district heating network. The systematic expansion of the corresponding pipeline network will occur over the next few years. In this context, sector coupling also plays an important role. In addition to our district heating offer, we expect a significant increase in heat pumps in the market, which is why we are also decisively pushing forward the expansion of our electricity network - with a total investment volume of over 100 million EUR.
Wirtschaftsforum: A sophisticated concept is certainly an important basis – but how can it be reliably and predictably implemented in times of skilled labor shortages?
Sebastian Haag: Currently, we are not having major difficulties filling open positions with qualified employees – even at the management level. This is likely due also to our clear roadmap and the diverse opportunities to effectively engage in this truly holistic transformation: those who want to get involved are in the right place with us. At the same time, as Stadtwerke Bruchsal, we also do not want to do everything ourselves, but rely on a strong network of local craft businesses, which can also have a share in this transformation – for example, through the installation of heat transfer stations or the installation of heat pumps. Thus, we want to clearly show the local businesses that we are not taking away their business. On the contrary – because the tasks are so extensive, in the end, there is more than enough business for everyone.
Wirtschaftsforum: How do you bring the citizens of Bruchsal along on this path?
Sebastian Haag: Broad acceptance among the population is certainly the most important basis of all for this transformation to succeed. For we will also be responsible for many major construction sites in the city in the coming years: ideally – even if it might be an ambitious goal – people should rather be happy about it and not too annoyed. At the same time, we are in intensive dialogue with citizen energy initiatives – because when new infrastructure is built right outside their front door, local people should also be able to participate in it.