The E-world kick-off this week marked the successful start of the E-world 2025 season, with three mornings of presentations, analyses and discussions at the digital conference. The third edition of the E-world energy & water Kick-off event was held under the motto “The energy transition between stability and change”. Among the experts on the virtual stage were Klaus Müller (President of the Federal Network Agency), Dr. Christoph Müller (Managing Director, Amprion), Barbara Lempp (COO, Energy Traders Europe) and Julia Schäper (Managing Director, Stadtwerke Ahrensburg). Around 1.100 viewers followed the livestreams. The recording of the kick-off is now available in German and English at https://t1p.de/kick-off-2025-playlist.
Day 1: Can the Grid Bear the Energy Transition?
Dr. Roman Dudenhausen, CEO of con|energy ag and co-organizer of E-world energy & water, opened the Kick-off on Tuesday, 19 November, with a fireside chat with Federal Network Agency President Klaus Müller. Dudenhausen also took up the ideas from the discussion in the subsequent panel discussion, which was joined by Thomas König (COO, Eon), Dr. Christoph Müller (Managing Director, Amprion) and Robert Busch (Managing Director of the German Association of the New Energy Economy). Under the key question “Can the grid bear the energy transition?”, the panellists examined current challenges such as the design of grid fees and the approach to grid expansion. The central question here was also: What impact will the premature end of the traffic light government have on progress in the area of grid expansion, and what priorities and tasks will the future government have to take on in this context? There was praise for the legislative projects initiated by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck. Nevertheless, the panel regretted that important legislative projects such as the reform of the Energy Industry Act would probably not be passed in this legislative period.
Day 2: Security of European Energy Supply in Times of Multipolar Crisis
The second day of the Kick-off focused on European energy supply security in times of multipolar crises. To discuss this, moderator Barbara Lempp, COO of Energy Traders Europe (formerly EFET Europe), welcomed these three experts: Sven Becker (CEO, Trianel), Dr. Dennis Rendschmidt (Managing Director, VDMA Power Systems) and Matthias König (Member of the Board, Enertrag). The opening keynote on Wednesday, November 20, was delivered by Dr. Bernd Weber. The founder and Managing Director of the think tank Epico KlimaInnovation gave an insight into the resilience of the German economy in challenging times.
Day 3: How to Finance the Municipal Heat Transition
At the end of the Kick-off event on Thursday, November 21, the focus shifted to financing the municipal heating transition. Moderator Dr. Franziska Schütze from the German Institute for Economic Research first addressed the role of the financial market in the decarbonization of buildings and the heat supply. She then joined Tilo Hacke (Member of the DKB Board), Ingbert Liebing (Managing Director of the Association of Municipal Enterprises VKU), Julia Schäper (Managing Director of Stadtwerke Ahrensburg) and Jochen Schenk (Vice President of the German Property Federation ZIA) to explore the question of whether and with which financing instruments the billions of euros of investment required for the heating transition could be raised.
The E-world Kick-off took place as a digital event from February 19 to 21, 2024. All three days of the event were simultaneously interpreted into English.
The recordings are available in German and English directly on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEwlTUdgE7b0FL9_8hqwuErFej3MGWyNf.