Creos Luxembourg

Creos Luxembourg S.A. owns and manages electricity networks and natural gas pipelines in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Creos Luxembourg S.A.

Industry	Energy
Founded	2009
Fate	2010: Integration of Luxgaz Distribution S.A. 2011: Integration of the electricity and gas networks of the City of Luxembourg
Headquarters	Rue de Strassen, 105 L-2555 Luxembourg
Area served	Luxembourg
Key people	Laurence Zenner (CEO) Mario Grotz (President)
Products	Electricity and natural gas
Revenue	429.7 million € (as at 31 December 2023)
Owner	1. Encevo S.A. (75.43%) 2. City of Luxembourg (20%) 3. State of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (2.28%) 4. 41 Luxembourg municipal authorities (2.08%) 5. Fédération du Génie Technique: 0.10% 6. Creos Luxembourg S.A. (0.10%)
Number of employees	888 (as at 31 December 2023)
Parent	Encevo Group
Website	creos-net.lu

History

Creos was formed as a result of a deal to unite:

• Cegedel S.A. – the Grand-Ducal electricity company of Luxembourg. It was founded in 1928 and distributed 70% of the electricity in the country.
• Soteg S.A. – Luxembourg's primary gas supplier - and Saar Ferngas AG – a distribution company created in 1929 in Saarland.

2000s

On 23 January 2009 Cegedel S.A. and Saar Ferngas AG were moved to Soteg S.A. This made a new energy group named Enovos. It included the parent company Enovos International S.A. and the two main subsidiaries: Creos Luxembourg (formerly Cegedel S.A.) in charge of network activities, and Enovos Luxembourg S.A. in charge of production, sales and marketing. Enovos and Creos each have a subsidiary for the German market: Enovos Deutschland and Creos Deutschland.

2010s

In 2010, Creos bought the natural gas networks from Luxgaz Distribution S.A. On 1 January 2011, the City of Luxembourg transferred its electricity and natural gas networks and its teams to Creos in exchange for owning units of property in Creos. The owned units of property increased from 5.71% to 24.57%^,.

In order to make a difference between the parent company and its subsidiaries – energy provider Enovos and grid operator Creos –, Enovos International is now called Encevo. Private equity firm Ardian sold its stake up to 24.92 percent in Encevo to China Southern Power Grid International, the second grid operator in China and in the world.

2020s

Following a reorganization of the Encevo Group in Germany at the end of October 2021, Creos Luxembourg sold its stake in Creos Deutschland Holding GmbH  . On 1 July 2023, Laurence Zenner, previously head of CFL Cargo, became the new CEO of Creos Luxembourg.

Creos also has a shareholding in the following companies:

1. Luxmetering, an Economic Interest Group which pilots the smart metering network;
2. Balansys, a joint-venture between Creos and Fluxys Belgium which aims to faciltate the integration of the Belgian and Luxembourg natural H gas market sectors into a single zone;
3. Ampacimon, the world leader in electricity grid monitoring;
4. `NEXXTLAB which develops digital solutions for real-time management of interactions between electricity market players;
5. TSCNet, a European company which provides coordination and support services to 16 transmission system operators (TSOs) to ensure the efficient and secure operation of electricity grids in Europe;
6. JAO, a trading platform that hosts Europe’s leading cross-border trading system, e-CAT, and provides a full range of services from auctions for long- and short-term capacity rights to back-up auctions for day-ahead coupling.

Business sector

Creos Luxembourg S.A. plans, constructs and maintains the electricity and natural gas transmission and distribution networks in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

In Luxembourg, following the liberalisation of the energy markets, an independent organisation – the Luxembourg Institute of Regulation – organises and supervises access to the networks. The tariffs are subject to its approval. The energy suppliers are guaranteed transparent access to Creos's networks.

Infrastructure

Electricity network

The majority of the electricity in Luxembourg comes from Germany via two double high-voltage 220,000 volt (220 kV) lines connected to the German network. Interconnection with Belgium has become operational with a phase shifting transformer at the Schifflange Centre in October 2017. Around 15% of the energy is produced locally (biogas, cogeneration, wind turbines, hydroelectricity and photovoltaics).

Voltage

The electricity is send to the six stations (Flebour, Roost, Itzig/Blooren, Heisdorf, Bertange and Schifflange) where the voltage is reduced from 220 to 65 kV. It is given to industries and large municipal distribution networks. The voltage is then reduced from 65 kV to 20 kV in more than 60 transformer stations in the whole country. The electric energy obtained is distributed to SMEs, towns and villages where the transformers reduce the current voltage to 0.4 kV before distributing it to the final consumer. A control centre, known as Electricity Dispatching, controls and manages these high and medium-voltage networks.

Length

The total length of the Luxembourg electricity network managed by Creos is 12,278.8 kilometres, including 944.8 kilometres of high-voltage lines, 3,520.7 kilometres of medium-tension lines and 7,813.3 kilometres of low tension lines.

Electricity		2023
Electricity flow	GWh	4,719.0
Electricity network peak	MW	807.0
Length of network	km	12,278.8

Natural gas network

Thanks to its connections with Germany, Belgium and France, Luxembourg is linked to the interconnected gas networks throughout Europe. Monitored by Dispatching Gas, the high and medium-pressure pipelines distribute the gas to 60 communes that are connected to the national gas network. Pressure-reducing stations that supply the local networks then reduce the gas pressure. Creos distributes natural gas in 45 communes^,.

Natural gas		2023
Total capacity of gas network	Nm3/h	319,000
Gas network peak	Nm3/h	167,186
Volume transported	GWh	6,369
Length of network	km	2,204.2

Since 1 October 2015, Creos and Fluxys Belgium, in collaboration with their respective regulators ILR and CREG, have united the national markets of Luxembourg and Belgium into one Belux market. This integration, the first between two European Union member states, reflects the will of the European Union to create an European gas market without borders^,,,. Balansys, the joint venture between Creos and its Belgian counterpart Fluxys, is the balancing operator in the Belux zone from 1 June 2020. It is responsible for ensuring that the gas market is well supplied, without one of the two suppliers having to pay an entry fee for its gas on the other's market.

Operations centres

Creos has four regional centres. They build, operate, maintain and repair the electricity and natural gas networks.

The Roost Centre covers the central and northern regions. It covers the high, medium and low-voltage electricity services and the medium and low-pressure natural gas services, the central store and the mechanical and electrical workshops^,.

The Schifflange Centre covers the southern part of the country.

The Luxembourg City Centre, which covers the capital and the communes of Strassen and Hesperange, moved together with the Strassen headquarters to a new site in Merl at the end of 2021.

The Contern Centre manages and adjusts the meters, in particular smart meters.

Dispatching for electricity and natural gas together with the monitoring rooms for remote network control and management are installed in Bettembourg since 2020.

Projects

Creos is involved in three major national themes; smart grids, electromobility and energy management.

European Energy Efficiency Directive

In accordance with the law of 7 August 2012 that puts the European Energy Efficiency Directive into Luxembourg law, all the gas and electricity meters must be changed in the country, independently of the network operator. Creos has made 300,000 smart meters that record information about energy in Luxembourg. This includes 250,000 electricity meters and 50,000 gas meters. The installation of these new electricity and gas meters – called Smarty – in Luxembourg homes will allow the creation of networks with real intelligence: smart grids. These smart grids can monitor decentralised electricity production (like wind turbines and photovoltaic panels), regulating the variations of the feeds into the distribution networks with greater precision and managing the demand peaks linked with the charging of electric vehicles more effectively. The law from 7 August 2012 also demands that the metering system must be able to receive water and heating^,,,,.

Electric mobility

Creos installed nearly 700 public charging stations out of the planned 800 stations for electric cars and hybrid plug-in cars across the country. Each charging station has two charging points, and the network – called Chargy – will include at the end 1,600 parking spaces for electric vehicles. In January 2021, Creos inaugurated the first two Superchargy ultra-fast charging terminals at Kirchberg, a district of Luxembourg City. By the end of 2023, 60 SuperChargy direct current (DC) terminals have been distributed along the country's main roads and motorways, as well in some Park & Ride car parks.

Energy Management

Creos is also preparing the Third Industrial Revolution of the country. This convergence of IT, renewable energy and means of transport will have an impact on how the power grids are managed. To anticipâtes this évolution, Creos has been involved in two major national projects since 2023. The first project is called Leneda. It brings together Creos, other distribution networks and suppliers in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and the Luxembourg Institute for Regulation (ILR). The aim is to collect all gas and electricity consumption and production data, make it available to the various market players and facilitate communication between them. The second project is called Alva. Developed by DataThings, a spin-off of the University of Luxembourg, and operational since September 2023, this digital twin of Creos will eventually enable advanced analysis of network usage and load to optimise operational efficiency.

Always on the lookout for energy efficiency, Creos is also leading the FlexBeAn project which focuses on the flexibility and analysis of user behaviour, in collaboration with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg.

Other websites

• Commons: Creos Luxembourg
• Official site Archived 2019-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
• creosnews (blog)