VERBUND has been closely associated with the Austrian state for decades. While the company initially served as a powerful ‘electric motor’ for the reconstruction of the country after the Second World War, VERBUND has developed into a company of European dimensions since Austria's accession to the EU in 1995.
When VERBUND was founded in 1947 as ‘Österreichische Elektrizitätswirtschafts-AG’ under the 2nd Nationalisation Act, electricity was also in short supply in Austria. In this situation, VERBUND is given the task by the legislator of rebuilding and expanding Austria's electricity system. With the help of the Marshall Plan, important projects such as the Kaprun and Ybbs-Persenbeug hydropower plants can be realised in the first few years.
In the ‘Roaring Sixties’, further large power plants are connected to the grid: Aschach (Upper Austria) and Wallsee-Mitterkirchen (Upper/Lower Austria) as well as Mayrhofen (Tyrol), the main stage of what would later become Austria's most powerful storage power plant group.
With enormous effort and financial help from the ‘Marshall Plan’, the storage power station in Kaprun was completed in 1952.
After a break due to the war, construction of the power station was resumed in 1954 and completed in 1959.
In the 1960s, the expansion of hydropower on the Danube was a high priority.
Nuclear power promised a way out of the energy crisis of the 1970s, but it was never connected to the grid in Austria. As soon as the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant was completed, the population decided against its commissioning in a referendum in 1978.
Politicians and the electricity industry quickly decide in favour of greater energy security through the expansion of hydropower. In the ‘Seventies’, three hydropower plants are built on the Danube, including the largest in Altenwörth (Lower Austria) and the Malta storage power plant (Carinthia) with the highest dam in Austria.
1988 is an important year for VERBUND, as 49% of the company is privatised in the course of an IPO and VERBUND takes over the federal government's shares in the special companies (e.g. Donaukraft).
The Tyrolean pumped storage facilities created the basis for the system of base load and peak load generation that guarantees the security of the electricity supply.
Energy security through storage power plants was the motto of the 1970s. Austria's highest dam was built with the Kölnbrein dam.
In 1985, the Greifenstein Danube power plant set a milestone for ecological standards. Today, the newly created ‘Gießgang’ is a natural paradise.
At the end of the 1990s, VERBUND anticipates future EU regulations, such as the corporate unbundling of the ‘generation’ and ‘transmission’ business areas of electricity in Austrian Power Grid AG (APG).
In the mid-2000s, VERBUND has business relationships in more than 20 countries and has 13 subsidiaries and holdings in Europe and one in Turkey.
Following a referendum with an overwhelming majority, the last Danube power plant was built between 1992 and 1998.
In 1999, VERBUND was the first company to fulfil the new EU competition rules by separating the grid subsidiary under company law.
The expansion of pumped storage power plants, such as Limberg II, enables the balancing of electricity from wind and sun.
In 2007, VERBUND expands its activities to include other renewable energy sources and begins massive investments, primarily in wind power. The global economic crises and massive upheavals in the energy market also affect VERBUND.
VERBUND is currently massively expanding its range of energy-related services and energy efficiency products and offers innovative solutions for domestic industrial and commercial companies as well as private households.
In 2007, VERBUND supplemented its electricity generation with wind power in eastern Austria.
In 2010, VERBUND swapped its Turkish holdings for the traditional hydropower plant on the Inn River in Bavaria.
We are working at our VERBUND sites to drive forward the energy transition in Austria and Europe.
Journalist Carola Wachholder wants to know what the energy transition in our home country of Austria is really like.
The Holding Management Board is also the Management Board of the entire company and makes strategic decisions for VERBUND.