German energy company E.ON has announced plans to invest around €27bn ($30bn) in its energy transition by 2026.
Under this plan, the company will allocate €22bn for expanding its energy networks and €5bn to expand its customer solutions business.
By 2026, E.ON intends to increase its annual investments in energy networks by around €1bn, which will raise its regulated asset base by at least 6% a year.
As part of its digitisation efforts, E.ON will invest almost €2bn in digitalising its network planning, monitoring and control.
The move is intended to position the company as one of the first energy companies to digitally control its network infrastructure at all voltage levels.
E.ON will also focus on providing sustainable solutions for homes, lifestyles and work.
Its distributed energy infrastructure solutions would also be expanded with an annual investment of between €500m and €600m.
In addition, the company aims to increase its presence in the hydrogen segment by participating in European project partnerships such as H2.Ruhr.
It also plans to make an annual dividend growth of up to 5% until 2026.
To help it meet these goals, E.ON will divest some of its businesses, which were deemed unsuitable for its tripartite growth strategy.
The sale of these businesses is expected to help the company generate proceeds of between €2bn and €4bn over the next five years.
E.ON CEO Leonhard Birnbaum said: “E.ON will now launch a comprehensive growth and investment offensive to establish a zero-carbon energy world.
“Extending our forecast timeframe to five years until 2026 underscores the resilience and the strong growth potential of both of E.ON’s core businesses, which, in the decade ahead, will benefit substantially from Europe’s energy transition.
“In 2030, E.ON will be bigger, greener, more digital and more diverse.”
Last July, E.ON agreed to divest innogy’s electricity and gas businesses in the Czech Republic to MVM Group.
