Sales of Euro 932 million (55% of total Group sales) have made electric power the largest business segment in the MVV Energie Group.

Power Volume of the MVV Energie Group 1
In Mill. kWh	2002/2003		2001/2002		In %
Power wholesaling (incl. secondary distributors) 2	12,416		22,472		-45
Key accounts	6,374		4,328		+47
Small businesses and households	1,592		1,507		+6
	20,382		28,307		-28
1 Without electric power volume from MHKW and value-added services
2 Without deliveries within the MVV Energie Group

Substantial Rise in Retail Electric Power Volume

We increased our volume of retail electricity to end consumers (small businesses and households, industrial and commercial customers) by 37%. This far exceeded the overall growth in electric power consumption in Germany, which was only 2% for the period reported here according to information provided by the Association of German Electric Power Works (VDEW). Our above-average growth was primarily the result of having successfully acquired new industrial, commercial and construction customers for our nationwide power business.

After what, in some cases, were drastic rate reductions in the first few years after market liberalisation, German electricity rates have largely rebounded across the board. In early 2003, MVV Energie raised rates for tariff-bound household and small-business customers by 5–6%. At the same time, official fees and taxes (electricity tax, CHP Act, REA) went up once again and wholesale prises increased; these hikes were passed on to customers. Approximately 40% of total electricity costs for small business and household customers with average consumption patterns go for taxes and other fees.

Trading volumes on wholesale power-trading markets have decreased because several international trading companies have left the market. This has also had an adverse effect on our wholesale trading volumes. The encouraging sales growth in our end-consumer business largely compensated for this decrease in trading volume, however, with total sales in our electric power segment decreasing by only 5% despite the 45% decrease in wholesale revenues.

We were able to increase our electric power volume in our end-consumer business from 5.8 billion kWh to 8.0 billion kWh. We have thus become the seventh largest electric power utility in Germany with regard to electric power supplied to end-consumers. Supplying a total of 20.7 billion kWh (including our wholesale power volume, MHKW and value-added services) has made the MVV Energie Group the fifth largest electric power supplier in Germany.

When power trading is taken into account, MVV Energie AG accounted for sales of Euro 742 million, or 76% of total electric power sales prior to consolidation (Euro 978 million); Energieversorgung Offenbach AG accounted for sales of Euro 154 million (16%). The year under review was the first in which the Ingolstadt and Solingen utilities had been consolidated for an entire year; together they achieved sales of Euro 82 million (8%) compared to Euro 56 million for nine months of last year.