Combined strengths Standardkessel

COMBINED

STRENGTHS

Standardkessel and Baumgarte represent two success stories backed by a combined 160 years of experience. Julia Snow reports on a company that is “Fuelled by ideas full of energy”.

Intelligent boiler technologies for generating energy are more in demand than ever before, thanks to the decline in energy resources and the need to decelerate the climate change by reducing CO2 emissions. With an order intake of €150.5 million in 2011 and a total of 275 employees in the three German offices in Duisburg, Bielefeld and Oberhausen, Standardkessel Baumgarte Group is an international leader in boiler technology.

Founded in 1925 and 1935 respectively, both companies are united in their strong roots in extensive research and development work. Today they share a reference list that includes the planning and construction of more than 1000 plants across the globe.

Supported by a private Belgian partner, the group’s management acquired the group of companies from the former proprietor, the Dutch HTP Investments b.v., as of 21 May 2007.

Standardkessel Power Systems Holding GmbH as well as both the wholly owned operative subsidiaries Standardkessel GmbH and Baumgarte Boiler Systems GmbH were the subjects of this transaction. Wide range of technologies and services

There are many ways in which different sources of energy can be transformed into heat, steam or electricity. Standardkessel and Baumgarte have cutting-edge know how in the supply of high-quality components, the implementation of complete complex systems, the provision of services as an EPCM contractor and in the delivery of top-notch plant services.

Standardkessel and Baumgarte can demonstrate this expertise in their wide spectrum of fully developed process technologies – from traditional fuels like coal, gas and oil through to alternative fuels like biomass, biological residues, household waste or residues from industrial production processes.

The plants and components division offers systems for recovering energy from biomass, residues, waste heat downstream of gas turbines and primary fuels, with a regional concentration on Europe.

The service division provides numerous services for power plants, waste incineration stations and industrial plants, beginning with intelligent engineering aimed at modernisation as well as plant and operational optimisation, and extending to assembly, installation and commissioning up to maintenance and complete plant management.

The contracting division offers the complete design, planning and coordination of energy and power generation projects from a single source. The division provides services spanning project identification, financing, project development and realisation through to operation of the power generation plant and an equity interest.

Services include engineering, project management, supply and commissioning of boiler and power plant systems, and after sales services for applications in the areas of energy supply, district heating, process steam and process heat.

The company’s R&D department is currently working on the development of more specialised, tailor-made solutions and the emerging fluidised bed technology.

Expanding international presence

Although there is a selection of international projects, the company’s main markets lie in Europe, served by the three sites in Ger-

many as well as one in the UK and one in Saudi Arabia. A development milestone was achieved in October this year, with the completion of the financing deal for a biomass plant in Kauai, Hawaii.

According to Green Energy Team LLC and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s recent announcement, they received the loan guarantee to build the biomass-to-energy facility near Koloa from the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service. This loan signals the go-ahead for the beginning of the construction of the facility, which will burn woodchips from trees grown on Kauai, early next year. The project is backed by Deutsche Bank and Standardkessel Baumgarte, who is an equity partner in the project, and who will also design the plant. The plant, which is scheduled to be operational in 2014, will generate 6.7MW of electricity, enough to power 8500 homes, or 11 per cent of the Garden Island’s power needs.

It will be the first closed-loop, biomass-toenergy plant in the USA, relying completely on the supply of its own sources of Kauai biomass wood chips, with no off-island dependence. Also, the project will create 200 construction jobs and 39 permanent operating jobs, as well as work for local subcontractors and service providers.

Fuelling further growth

In the light of the outdated and aging fleet of power plants, a trend towards decentralised energy production and an increase in waste incineration, the market signs are very positive for the Standardkessel Baumgarte Group in Europe in the medium term, providing an excellent strategic position.

The company expects continued positive business development in the 2012 and 2013 financial years, based on positive market conditions for growth and expansion in both the plants and components division. Further growth is anticipated in the service division, and the contracting division is also expected to provide further positive momentum for the entire group.

Future areas of growth will track emerging market trends closely, in line with the group’s strategy of offering solutions, not products. Finally, growth impulses are expected from new technologies as well as market extensions, with a special look to the East and Middle East. n