Page 53 - KELAG Annual Report 2019

In the financial year 2019, around 40,000 m³ of district
Around two thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water, heating water was required as conditioned fresh water to
but only one percent of it is drinking water. A large part of top up the quantities lost due to drainage, burst pipes, and
the fresh water withdrawn today is not for household use, leakage. The feed water used for steam generation is
but for agriculture and industry. provided directly by the customers in the form of fresh
water and condensate in most of the steam power plants
Due to the natural landscape conditions in the state of and returned in the form of steam. For these power plants,
Carinthia, the use of water as a raw material has always a continuous recording of consumption is therefore not
played an important role and forms the main pillar of suitable.
electricity generation at KELAG. The use of water power GRI 303-3
makes it possible to generate energy largely free of CO2 and
offers the further advantage that the quality of the water is
not affected in the electricity generation process. All normal household waste water is discharged via the
municipal waste water network and subsequently recycled
The topic of waste water in Austria is covered by a variety of before it is released back into surface waters. The flow of
federal and state regulations. At federal level, waste water waste water stemming from the production plants is
is chiefly regulated by ordinances while at state level it is continuously monitored for quality and discharged in
governed by sewage laws and the fees prescribed by law. accordance with the applicable environmental standards.
Thresholds for effluents are officially defined by the The standards for waste water discharge are legally
authorities in waste water emissions regulations (AEV). prescribed in all countries where companies are active.
Ordinances on waste water emissions with specific
GRI 303-4
maximum quantities of harmful substances have been
issued for most sectors of commerce and industry.
Compliance with the thresholds is to be demonstrated and
The infrastructure projects of the Group are generally
documented regularly within the scope of internal and
characterised by a high degree of complexity with respect
external monitoring.
to biodiversity. This relates to all measures concerning the
GRI 303-1
supply network as well as to various projects in connection
with production facilities. In all areas, integrating the
licensing authorities responsible in a timely manner, as
As part of the sustainability efforts, water consumption at early as the planning and project development phase,
every stage of the production and supply chains is to be ensures that all environment-related effects originating
kept as low as possible. In the KELAG Group, water as a from the project are taken into account. Appropriate
resource is mainly used for normal household purposes measures to prevent, eliminate or reduce the impact on the
(e.g., sanitary facilities in the administrative buildings) as environment are determined in cooperation with the
well as process water (e.g., in heating grids). The volumes authorities responsible. KELAG has set itself the goal to
required for this are obtained from both the municipal keep measures that modify the environment to a minimum.
water supply as well as groundwater and well water. The
portion that is taken from surface waters for production is The small number of KELAG power plants located in or near
released back chemically unchanged. protected areas reaffirms KELAG’s objective to keep its
impact on nature as low as possible. Currently, only 6 out of