Wiener Netze GmgH is an electricity and natural gas distributer and a part of Wiener Stadwerke Holding AG, which is fully owned by the City of Vienna. The exceptional circumstances brough by the Coronavirus has imposed new challenges and particular demands to the company, both in terms of management and operationalization of their regular activities – which must be properly carried on due to the indispensability of their services.
The company has reported some of the main difficulties that quickly emerged after the beginning of the outbreak in Europe, such as the need to efficiently manage their human resources under exceptional constraints, as well as adapting and stabilizing their networks according to the negative shift in the demand. It has also been challenging for the management to adjust their supply chains with their economic partners, to efficiently respond to the fluctuations in their cash flow, and to provide prompt solutions for extraordinary new demands and installations. Furthermore, they have stressed the particularly vital challenge of guaranteeing the supply of electricity, gas and heating to the health sector.
Finally, Wiener Netze GmgH representatives have stressed some of the additional managerial efforts that had to be put forward amidst the outbreak. In this context, they have decided to postpone “uncritical” deadlines – while ensuring that all the necessary activities for the continuity of their services were properly in place. Moreover, they are producing a new assessment of regulatory targets for 2021 and working to ensure that the legal framework they must operate within is appropriately adapted to the crisis situation, fostering more investments in a shorter time frame, for example.