Frost & Sullivan Recognises ENERGA With Green Excellence Award

LONDON and GDANSK, Poland, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent research on the Polish energy utility market, Frost & Sullivan presents ENERGA SA Group (ENERGA) with the "2010 Polish Energy Utility Corporate Leadership Green Excellence Award". ENERGA has established unique services in the Polish market to improve its environmental performance while enhancing consumers' participation in generating energy. The company has formulated strategies to strengthen its market position in green investments.

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Due to Polish law, every energy utility is obliged to purchase renewable energy from the installation located at the utility's area and is connected to the utility's grid. ENERGA's area of operation covers Northern Poland, where there is the highest number of wind farms. This influences a very strong position in terms of renewable sources being used in total energy production. The vision of ENERGA is to establish a strong, effective, and innovative company that cooperates and supports all entities belonging to the group while increasing their effectiveness.

In order to fulfill its strategic goals ENERGA has established several unique and innovative services that will bring investments forward towards sustainable resource management. One of these, Energy House, is a package of services that enable production of renewable energy from micro generators and the sale of surplus to the utility. The service is dedicated to households that are willing to generate electric energy on their own through micro generation. ENERGA expects that by the end of 2014 the project will cover 3600 facilities.

"The role of ENERGA as a partner is crucial at every stage as it provides audits and installation services," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Magdalena Dziegielewska. "It acts as an advisory body that participates in choosing the best possible micro generation, covers the legal issues, helps with project financing and future energy settlements."

In order to expand the idea of environmentally friendly housing, ENERGA is participating in building the first-in-Poland energy passive apartment complex in Gdansk. Like the Energy House project, several renewable energy technologies are going to be implemented in order to reduce the negative impact on the environment and provide better comfort of living. ENERGA has also expanded on the idea of the Energy House project to suit small and medium enterprises and other projects that the company has been participating in. It had even adapted it to the food industry resulting in a joint project with ELSTAR Oils, a manufacturer of oils and vegetable fats.

"To retain its strong position in the renewable energy market ENERGA has established new projects dedicated to increase the installed capacity in biogas power plants," notes Dziegielewska. "The goal is to install 300 MW of total capacity by 2020."

ENERGA's objective is to build 500 new power plants in Poland. The company's role would be to provide know-how in terms of building technology and connecting the installation to the grid. The person who owns the real estate where the investment will be located is obliged to supply the power plant with an energy source coming from its operational activity. The project began in 2009 and the first biogas power plant is being built.

ENERGA plans to build the first five-biogas power plants from its own financial sources in order to gain experience and become the competency centre for biogas investments. The next 50 power plants will be built as joint investments between ENERGA and its partners, where the company will own 20–100 per cent of the project. ENERGA will buy all energy produced in the biogas power plants for a guaranteed 10 years. This will result in additional income for the partner and will bring a strong advantage if the partner is applying for bank credit.

ENERGA also implements the core objectives of its corporate strategy in the work environment that creates significant value for its employees. The company is concerned about decreasing its negative impact on the environment and providing for long-term sustainability.

Further, ENERGA protects the environment and provides nature conservations for storks. Every energy utility that owns a distribution network has problems with storks' nests. In order to solve the problem, the company has decided to build special platforms for the storks on the top of energy installations. As a result, the storks have stopped damaging the grids, and ENERGA avoids restoration costs while protecting the storks' habitat.

There are several ideas that the company has implemented in terms of enhancing its environmental responsibility. In 2009, it opened a new branch in Olsztyn. To reduce the use of toxic materials, only ecological sources have been used for building Olsztyn's branch. Moreover, all employees use eco-business cards, and recycling has became more of a habit than an obligation. Creating a new trend, ENERGA has decided to switch from conventional cars to electric ones and will shortly make a request for 80 new electric cars.

Overall, ENERGA delivers several services that bring long-term improvements in environmental performance for its clients and itself. For these efforts, it is the worthy recipient of the 2010 Frost & Sullivan Corporate Leadership Green Excellence Award in the Polish energy utility market.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that has demonstrated significant progress in enhancing the long-term sustainability and managing the environmental impact of its operations, which results in measurable improvement in the company's overall environmental performance within its industry sector. The award signifies the company's keen awareness to the value of corporate social responsibility in today's increasingly "green" focused business environment, and the importance of being a good corporate citizen. Moreover, this award also recognizes that the company has successfully fostered sustainable practices across all global centres that it operates from, while maintaining its financial strength.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About ENERGA SA Group

ENERGA SA Group is one out of four of the biggest utilities in Poland. Its activity covers 75,000 square kilometres. It holds 16 per cent of the Polish electric energy market and 30 per cent in producing of electric energy from renewables due to the hydropower station located at Vistula River.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.awards.frost.com.

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan