History
Creos was formed as a result of a merger between Cegedel S.A. – the Grand-Ducal electricity company of Luxembourg, which was founded in 1928 and at the time distributed 70% of the country's required electricity supply, Soteg S.A. – Luxembourg's primary gas supplier, and Saar Ferngas AG – a distribution company created in 1929 in Saarland. [2] On 23 January 2009, all the shares from Cegedel S.A. and Saar Ferngas AG were transferred to Soteg S.A., which – after successfully launching a mandatory public bid for all shares not yet in its possession – underwent extensive restructuring with retrospective effect on 1 January 2009, giving rise to a new energy group. Named Enovos, it included the parent company Enovos International S.A. as well as two main subsidiaries: Creos Luxembourg (formerly Cegedel S.A.) in charge of network activities, and Enovos Luxembourg S.A. in charge of production, sales and marketing. Enovos and Creos each have a subsidiary to serve the German market: Enovos Deutschland and Creos Deutschland. [3] [4]
Over the next two years, Creos consolidated its position on the Luxembourg market. In 2010, it expanded its gas transmission network to include a distribution network and it purchased the natural gas networks from Luxgaz Distribution S.A., whereby the management of commercial activities was handed over to Enovos Luxembourg S.A. [5] On 1 January 2011, the City of Luxembourg transferred its electricity and natural gas networks as well as its teams to Creos in exchange for a shareholding stake. The publicly owned shareholding thus rose from 5.71% to 24.57%. [6] [7]
In order to more clearly distinguish the parent company from its subsidiaries – energy provider Enovos and grid operator Creos – Enovos International was given a new visual identity in 2016 and is now called Encevo. [8] End July, private equity firm Ardian sold its stake up to 24.92 percent in Encevo to China Southern Power Grid International, the second grid operator in China and in the world. [9] [10]
Following a reorganization of the Encevo Group in Germany at the end of October 2021, Creos Luxembourg sold its stake in Creos Deutschland Holding GmbH. [11] [12] On 1 July 2023, Laurence Zenner, previously head of CFL Cargo, became the new CEO of Creos Luxembourg. [13]
Creos has a shareholding in the following companies:
- Luxmetering, an Economic Interest Group which pilots the smart metering network;
- Balansys, a joint-venture between Creos and Fluxys Belgium which aims to faciltate the integration of the Belgian and Luxembourg natural H gas market sectors into a single zone;
- Ampacimon, the world leader in electricity grid monitoring;
- `NEXXTLAB which develops digital solutions for real-time management of interactions between electricity market players; [14]
- TSCNet, a European company which provides coordination and support services to 16 transmission system operators (TSOs) to ensure the efficient and secure operation of electricity grids in Europe;
- JAO, a trading platform that hosts Europe’s leading cross-border trading system, e-CAT, and provides a full range of services from auctions for long- and short-term capacity rights to back-up auctions for day-ahead coupling.
Infrastructure
Electricity network
The majority of the electric current in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg comes from Germany via two double high-voltage 220,000 volt (220 kV) lines that are connected to the German network. [16] The interconnection with the Belgian electricity market has become operational with the commissioning of a phase shifting transformer (PST) at the Schifflange Centre in October 2017, [17] and around 15% of the energy fed into the network is produced locally (biogas, cogeneration, wind turbines, hydroelectricity and photovoltaics) [18] The electricity is transmitted to the six transformer stations (Flebour, Roost, Itzig/Blooren, Heisdorf, Bertange and Schifflange) where the voltage is reduced from 220 to 65 kV before being distributed to industries and large municipal distribution networks. The voltage is then reduced from 65 kV to 20 kV in more than 60 transformer stations distributed across the whole country. The electric energy obtained is distributed to SMEs, towns and villages where the transformers reduce the current voltage to 0.4 kV before distributing it to the end consumer. A control centre, known as Electricity Dispatching, remotely controls and manages these high and medium-voltage networks.
The total length of the Luxembourg electricity network managed by Creos is 12,278.8 kilometres, including 944.8 kilometres of high-voltage lines, 3,520.7 kilometres of medium-tension lines and 7,813.3 kilometres of low tension lines.
| Electricity | | 2023 |
|---|
| Electricity flow | GWh | 4,719.0 |
| Electricity network peak | MW | 807.0 |
| Length of network | km | 12,278.8 |
Natural gas network
Thanks to its entry points with Germany, Belgium and France, Luxembourg is linked to the interconnected gas networks throughout Europe. Monitored by Dispatching Gas, the high and medium-pressure pipelines carry the gas to sixty or so communes that are connected to the national gas network. Pressure-reducing stations that supply the local networks then reduce the gas pressure. Creos ensures the distribution of natural gas in 45 communes. [19] [20]
| Natural gas | | 2023 |
|---|
| Total capacity of gas network | Nm3/h | 319,000 |
| Gas network peak | Nm3/h | 167,186 |
| Volume transported | GWh | 6,369 |
| Length of network | km | 2,204.2 |
Since 1 October 2015, Creos and its Belgian counterpart Fluxys Belgium, in collaboration with their respective regulators ILR and CREG, have merged the two national markets into one single Belux market. This integration, the first of its kind between two European Union member states, reflects the willingness of the European Union to create a borderless European gas market [21] , [22] , [23] ,. [24] Balansys, the joint venture between Creos and its Belgian counterpart Fluxys, is the balancing operator in the Belux zone from 1 June 2020. In other words, it is responsible for ensuring that the gas market is well supplied, without one of the two suppliers having to pay an entry fee for its gas on the other's market. [25]
Operation centres
Creos has four regional centres, which are dedicated to building, operating, maintaining and repairing the electricity and natural gas networks.
The Roost [ lb; fr ] Centre manages the central and northern regions. It covers the high, medium and low-voltage electricity services and the medium and low-pressure natural gas services, the central store and both the mechanical and electrical workshops [26] ,. [27]
The Schifflange Centre covers the southern part of the country.
The Luxembourg City Centre, which covers the capital and the adjoining communes of Strassen and Hesperange, moved together with the Strassen headquarters to a new site in Merl at the end of 2021. [28]
The Contern Centre manages and adjusts the meters, in particular smart meters.
Dispatching for electricity and natural gas together with the monitoring rooms for remote network control and management are installed at the Creos facility in Bettembourg since 2020.
Smart grids, electric mobility and energy management
Creos is involved in three nationwide projects; smart grid, electro-mobility and energy management.
In accordance with the law of 7 August 2012 that transposes the European Energy Efficiency Directive into Luxembourg legislation, all the gas and electricity meters must be changed across the entire national territory, independently of the network operator. Creos has installed 300,000 smart meters that record detailed information on the consumption and production of energy throughout the entire territory of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, including 250,000 electricity meters and 50,000 gas meters. The installation of these new electricity and gas meters – called Smarty – in Luxembourg homes will enable the creation of networks with built-in real intelligence: smart grids. These smart grids are capable of monitoring decentralised electricity production (similarly to wind turbines and photovoltaic panels), directing the variations of the feeds into the distribution networks with greater precision and managing the isolated demand peaks linked with the charging of electric vehicles more effectively. The law from 7 August 2012 also stipulates that the metering system must be able to receive other vectors such as water and heating [29] , [30] [31] , [32] , [33] ,. [34]
Creos has participated in the national target for electric mobility, which involves the installation of around 800 public charging points for electric and plug-in hybrid cars throughout the country. Each station is equipped with two charging points, which means that the network, called Chargy, will eventually consist of 1,600 parking spaces dedicated to electric mobility. Creos handled the deployment, operation and maintenance of the public charging infrastructure on its distribution network, totalling nearly 700 out of the planned 800 stations. [35] In January 2021, Creos inaugurated the first two ultra-fast SuperChargy charging stations in Kirchberg, a district of Luxembourg City. By the end of 2023, 60 SuperChargy DC charging stations have been distributed along the country's main roads and motorways, as well as in some Park & Ride (P+R) car parks. [36]
Creos is also preparing the Third Industrial Revolution of the country. [37] This convergence of IT, renewable energy and means of transport will have an impact on how the power grids are managed. To anticipate this evolution, Creos has been involved in two major national projects since 2023. [38] The first project is called Leneda. It brings together Creos, other distribution networks and suppliers in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and the Luxembourg Institute for Regulation (ILR). The aim is to collect all gas and electricity consumption and production data, make it available to the various market players and facilitate communication between them. The second project is called Alva. [39] Developed by DataThings, a spin-off of the University of Luxembourg, and operational since September 2023, this digital twin of Creos will eventually enable advanced analysis of network usage and load to optimise operational efficiency.
Always on the lookout for energy efficiency, Creos is also leading the FlexBeAn project which focuses on the flexibility and analysis of user behaviour, in collaboration with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg.
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