Farewell interview

Energie Steiermark: “Politics must remain outside”

Christian Purrer, born in 1955, has been head of Energie Steiermark since 2011. He retires at the end of March.(Bild: Jauschowetz Christian)

After 13 years as head of the provincial electricity company, Christian Purrer is retiring. In an interview with "Krone", he explains his views on topics such as e-mobility, electricity prices and the influence of the government. 

"Krone" : At the end of March, you will leave the top management of Energie Steiermark and retire at the age of 70. Are you satisfied with what you have achieved?Christian Purrer: Yes, because I can look back on a good record. 13 years ago, when I took on the Management Board job, we were handicapped by a large Verbund shareholding and a long-term gas supply contract with the Russians. My first goal was to make the company Styrian again and to buy out Verbund. This enabled us to merge the gas and electricity sales companies and the grids and bundle everything in Energie Steiermark. This meant that we were suddenly in control of our own company. The second important step was to terminate the long-term gas contract in order to avoid getting into financial difficulties.