Water and heat supply: Konz and Trier work together
06 May 2024
Together we can do many things better and also master emergency situations. This is why Verbandsgemeindewerke Konz AöR and Stadtwerke Trier have founded a joint company. The parties signed the contract for the "Saar-Mosel Infrastructure Company" in April. The aim is to work together on drinking water supplies and the energy and heat transition, among other things.
Photo: At the signing of the contract – in front: (from left) Ralf Zorn (Verbandsgemeindewerke Konz AöR) and Arndt Müller (SWT), behind them are (from left) Joachim Weber, Wolfram Leibe and Dirk Eis (SWT)
If, for example - as in the disaster in the Ahr Valley - wells are no longer functional, so that the drinking water supply is disrupted, the partners want to support each other. To this end, a so-called interconnected system is to be set up, with which the municipality can supply the other with water until the damage is repaired.
The partners also want to work together in the areas of “local heating” and “renewable energies” in the future. One example: Verbandsgemeindewerke Konz AöR is planning to expand a local heating network, including in the Könen industrial area. The new joint “Saar-Mosel Infrastructure Company” will enable the establishment of a sales company that will bring the climate-neutrally produced heat to the market and thus be able to offer it to local businesses and citizens.
"With the new company, we are making a major contribution to securing the drinking water supply for the citizens," says the mayor of the Konz district, Joachim Weber, who chairs the administrative board of Verbandsgemeindewerke Konz AöR. "We are also helping the companies based here to master the energy and heat transition. This is enormously important for the economic future of the companies in Konz and in the region."
Trier's mayor and SWT board chairman Wolfram Leibe added: "As a cross-network company, our municipal utilities have been active in the surrounding municipalities in various sectors for many years - including joint projects in Konz. I am very pleased that we are now setting up this collaboration under the umbrella of a joint company. In this way, we are bundling our competencies and ensuring local added value on numerous levels."