Strategies for a turnaround in the energy market
- 12.04.2024
- News Study Program
In the Energy Next workshop, 45 participants guide eight fictitious companies through the energy transition to sustainability.
In the Energy Next workshop, students worked with Tyrolean energy companies to develop strategies on how companies can successfully assert themselves on an energy market characterized by energy transition crises.
As part of the workshop, the trading mechanisms of the energy industry are simulated from different perspectives and in different phases from the company's point of view and the structures, technologies and market rules of the European energy market are simulated close to reality. The Energy Next simulation game from ProAccom GmbH serves as a tool. ProAccom consultants accompany and support the participants. Together with lecturers from Kufstein University, they constantly present them with new challenges in strategy development.
REALISTIC SIMULATION
The participants were students from the Bachelor's and Master's degree programs in Energy & Sustainability Management as well as employees from partner companies in the energy industry, TIWAG, Elektrizitätswerke Reutte AG, Stadtwerke Wörgl GmbH and Stadtwerke Kufstein GmbH. Divided into eight fictitious companies, the participants take on various roles from the value chain - power plant operation, energy trading and sales. Over a period of 15 years, the participants develop strategies for their companies and then implement them in a competitive environment and under the conditions of the regulatory and economic environment.
SUSTAINABLE CORPORATE STRATEGIES
Lobbying with the government and negotiating loan conditions for new investments in power plants with banks are necessary in order to finance investments and secure company growth. As the game management in the form of the government and the bank intervenes through subsidies and taxes, companies would do well to align their strategies with the values of sustainability and economic efficiency.
PRACTICAL SIMULATION GAMES AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE COURSE
The simulation game has been an integral part of the curriculum at the Kufstein University for ten years. The simulation game enables participants to experience the complex procedures and interrelationships of the energy market and politics in a realistic way. The core tasks are power plant operation, decommissioning fossil fuel power plants and expanding renewable energies, electricity trading, negotiations with the government and banks and customer acquisition. “With this simulation game, we can put together the knowledge acquired in the degree program and the skills / competencies of the students like a puzzle. Everything is somehow connected to everything else,” says Prof. (FH) Dr. Wolfgang Woyke, Professor of Energy Economics at the Kufstein University.
Industry promotion
The workshop is associated with considerable financial expenditure. Financial support comes from the Tyrolean energy companies TIWAG, Elektrizitätswerke Reutte AG, Stadtwerke Wörgl GmbH and Stadtwerke Kufstein GmbH.