Practising source reduction, utilising energy efficiently, protecting the environment and conserving resources. Our energy from waste plants (MHKW) in Mannheim and Offenbach have been contributing to these objectives for several years.

Energy Volume and Incineration Capacity – MHKW of the MVV Energie Group
	2002/2003		2001/2002		In %
Electric power volume in Mill. kWh	80		76		+5
Process steam volume in Mill.kWh	486		483		+1
Incinerated waste in 1,000 tonnes	481		466		+3
Delivered waste in 1,000 tonnes	486		464		+5

Annual capacities of up to 380,000 and 200,000 tonnes, respectively, of garbage and nonrecyclable waste can be incinerated in our energy from waste plants in Mannheim and Offenbach for state, regional and local governments as well as for private disposal enterprises. We thus utilise the energy-rich waste of today’s civilisation in order to generate process steam and electric power in Mannheim as well as district heating and electric power in Offenbach, in both cases using energy-efficient cogeneration (CHP). Mannheim’s energy from waste plant alone supplies 50 industrial customers with process steam and generates enough electric power to supply 37,000 four-person households.

Sales and Earnings Rise

The persistently weak economy has led to a drop in the volume of industrial and commercial waste in Germany. Moreover, the German waste-management market was marked by mounting competition during fiscal year 2002/03.

Compared to last year, sales in our energy from waste segment rose by 2% to Euro 93 million. Half of this growth stemmed from MVV Energie’s waste-management business (energy from waste in Mannheim and Offenbach) and the other half from its energy business (process steam and electric power sales).

Compared to last year, the volume of incinerated waste increased by 15,000 tonnes (+3%) to 481,000 tonnes. Most of this rise stemmed from EVO, which incinerated 189,000 tonnes (176,000 tonnes last year) of refuse-derived fuel to generate energy in 2002/03. At Mannheim’s MHKW, 292,000 tonnes of waste were incinerated (290,000 tonnes last year).

Developments in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and goodwill amortisation (EBITDA) and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in our energy from waste segment were negatively affected by expenditures in conjunction with taking over facility management for Mannheim’s MHKW from the Mannheim central powerplant (GKM). Adjusted for this one-off factor amounting to Euro 7 million and proportional expenditures for restructuring measures at EVO (Euro 1 million), EBITDA went up in 2002/03 from Euro 48 million to Euro 49 million compared to last year. After taking depreciation and goodwill amortisation into account, our MHKW segment had an adjusted EBIT of Euro 28 million in 2002/03 compared to Euro 27 million last year.