VERBUND: No electricity from the Ukraine to be imported to Western Europe

16.06.2000Wien

In response to corresponding media reports concerning electricity imports from the Ukraine, VERBUND states the following: VERBUND has not bought - and does not buy - any electricity from the Ukraine, Russia or in any other third party country with nuclear reactors that are questionable from a safety point of view.

VERBUND will not import any electricity from the Ukraine to Austria or within the EU in the future either.

VERBUND's fundamental business policy is to deliver its customers ecologically acceptable electricity, alongside an attractive price. It is thanks to this business policy, and an over 90 percent hydropower share of the electricity production, that VERBUND ranks as the cleanest large producer in the EU. VERBUND was the first Austrian producer to permit its production to be certified by the Technical Inspection Agency.

VERBUND welcomes the certificate of origin for electricity sold in Austria, as proposed in the new ElWOG draft.

Together with German partners and the Russian RAO EES Rossii, the leading hydropower concern in Russia, VERBUND wants to make use of a high voltage direct current, which is no longer needed for the coupling of the West and Central European grid with the Eastern European grid. Media reports concerning possible electricity imports from the Ukraine to Western Europe place this grid coupling project in connection with electricity imports, whilst ignoring the ecological components of VERBUND's market strategy.