Vattenfall Rejigs Wind Unit, Names Offshore Wind Head

Swedish energy company Vattenfall has appointed Michael Simmelsgaard head of the newly formed Business Unit Offshore Wind.

Vattenfall’s Business Area Wind will now operate with three business units; Offshore, Onshore and, for the first time, Photovoltaic & Battery.

The business units will cover the entire value chain of their respective business. The newly formed organization started operations with effect from 1 July.

At the beginning of this year, Vattenfall decided to sharpen its wind activities towards a product line driven organization. Three new BUs will now build Vattenfall’s Business Area Wind which is operating in six European countries: Sweden, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and France. The changes will enable and support further growth both in terms of projects and people, the company said.

“Already early this year, we have taken a decision to adjust our ways of working towards the anticipated market developments,” Gunnar Groebler, Head of Vattenfall Wind, said.

”With the “go live” of the new structure, we again put more focus on profitable growth in the renewable space and hence supporting Vattenfall’s overall ambition to power climate smarter living and becoming CO2 free in just one generation. ”

The new organization, designed along the respective value chains, is expected to enable the business units to further reduce levelized costs of energy due to increased focus and reduced complexity.

“Vattenfall is already among the pioneering companies in terms of cost reductions in the offshore and onshore wind sector as it is our ambition to lead the industry into a profitable but also highly competitive future. At the same time we face a fast changing business environment in our markets. With the creation of a lean business model with product lines in order to create dedicated end-to-end-processes and business that can respond to different markets, we take the logical next step to fulfil our ambitious targets,” Groebler said.

Simmelsgaard joined Vattenfall in October 2015 as Vice President of Strategic Projects and a member of the management team at Business Area Wind.