ESSEN, Germany, March 12 (Reuters) - RWE, Germany's largest power producer, on Thursday said it would expand more aggressively in the United States, a market where data centres have significantly
RWE in $20 billion US expansion push, shares near 16-year high
RWE Targets US Market for Aggressive Expansion and Growth
By Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff
RWE's Strategic Expansion in the United States
ESSEN, Germany, March 12 (Reuters) - RWE will expand more aggressively in the United States, a market where data centres have significantly fuelled power demand, Germany's largest power producer said on Thursday, saying this would also include new gas-fired power plants.
The move marks a major push by Germany's biggest utility into a market where the rapid construction of data centres, as well as the need to modernise ageing power infrastructure, has fuelled a boom in generation assets and network equipment.
Impact of Data Centres and Tech Firms
This is mainly driven by big tech firms, so-called hyperscalers, which are planning to spend $600 billion this year on artificial intelligence, a technology that needs substantial power supply and has also benefited German industrial peers.
RWE Share Performance
Shares in the company, the second-best-performing German blue-chip stock so far this year after Siemens Energy, rose to their highest level since June 2010 and were still up 3.5% at 1146 GMT.
US as RWE's Key Growth Market
CEO Statement and Expansion Plans
US IS RWE'S MOST IMPORTANT GROWTH MARKET
"The message we're getting is this: 'Demand for electricity is so high, build whatever you can'," RWE CEO Markus Krebber told journalists during the group's annual press conference.
Investment Breakdown and Project Details
RWE said the new plants were planned at sites where it had existing grid connections and the first unit would be in operation by the end of the decade, adding the group was targeting small new projects, not big acquisitions.
Planned Spending and Capacity Increase
Overall, the United States, where RWE already has 13 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar, wind and battery storage capacity, will account for 17 billion euros ($20 billion), or nearly half, of its planned spending by 2031.
It said gas-fired power plants would account for around 1 billion euros of that sum.
Installed U.S. capacity is expected to increase to 22 GW as a result, the company said, also releasing full-year results that showed core profit fell 10% to 5.1 billion euros, still beating the 4.9 billion euro poll forecast.
Future Projects and Geographic Focus
RWE said it was developing a 5 GW pipeline of gas-fired power plant projects in the United States, targeting Texas as well as Midwestern states, adding that more than 3 GW would be realised by 2035.
($1=0.8643 euros)
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Jamie Freed, Miranda Murray, Clarence Fernandez and Tomasz Janowswki)
