Make the successes visible
vgbe Awards
vgbe AWARDS,
The successesare made visible
With the vgbe Awards, vgbe wants to draw the attention of the industry and the interested public to precisely those topics that are of great importance for companies operating in the field of power and heat generation and storage, in the national as well as in the international environment, in the present as well as in the future:
- Quality
- Occupational health and safety and
- Research and development
Against this background, three prizes unique in this form were created.
The awards include all technologies for the generation and storage of electricity and heat in all project phases: new build, operation, refurbishment, maintenance, decommissioning/dismantling and retrofit.
The vgbe Awards are presented at the annual vgbe Congress by the vgbe Chairman.
Everything at a glance
- Deadline for proposals:
- Submit proposal online
- Download: Call of nominations
- The award ceremony
The Quality Award will be
presented at the vgbe Congress 2027.
Everything at a glance
- Deadline for proposals:
- Submit proposal online
- Download: Call of proposals
- The award ceremony
The Quality Award will be presented at the vgbe Congress 2027.
Everything at a glance
- Deadline for proposals:
To be announced. - Submit proposal online
- The award ceremony
The Safety & Health Award will be
presented at the vgbe Congress on
22 Sept 2027.
vgbe Innovation Award
the prize
innovation
made visible
The vgbe Innovation Award underlines the innovative strength of the industry. The vgbe Innovation Award underlines the innovative strength of the industry. Awards are given for outstanding achievements by young university graduates or young professionals in the field of electricity and heat generation and storage (age limit: 35 years). The prize is endowed with a total of 10,000 € and is awarded in two categories: “Application” and “Future”.
Current awardees
vgbe Innovation Award
The Innovation Award has been awarded by the vgbe RESEARCH FOUNDATION for more than 30 years.
Due to the high standard of the submitted projects, the Board of Trustees of the vgbe Research Foundation decided to honour a total of four winners. All four will receive the Innovation Award as well as prize money. The projects cover a range of technical challenges facing the energy sector – from high-temperature corrosion and combustion, through hydrogen and materials testing, to increasing the flexibility of biomass and waste-to-energy power stations.
Viktor Andersson – Chemistry for better control of high-temperature processes
Viktor Andersson already possesses strong academic qualifications. He holds a Master of Science in ‘Innovative and Sustainable Chemical Engineering’ from Chalmers University of Technology, followed by a PhD in Science specialising in chemistry from the University of Gothenburg. He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Andersson is therefore already a qualified PhD holder and continues to conduct research at an academic level following the completion of his doctorate.
The award recognises his work entitled ‘Real-time alkali speciation’, which falls under the ‘Future-Oriented’ category. In terms of content, Andersson’s research focuses on alkali metals and their chemical form in high-temperature processes. Sodium and potassium, for example, play a particularly important role in the combustion of biomass. Under the high temperatures found in thermal energy plants, such substances can trigger chemical reactions that may, amongst other things, contribute to high-temperature corrosion.
Andersson’s research thus provides insights into how alkali metals react in high-temperature processes and what influence they have on corrosion and other processes involved in thermal energy generation and biomass conversion.
Elias Ehlmé – better models for thermal radiation in flames
Elias Ehlmé also comes from the field of chemical engineering. He holds a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Chalmers University and is currently a PhD student at Chalmers University of Technology. His doctoral research focuses on thermal radiation. His award-winning thesis is entitled ‘Advanced radiative heat transfer models for combustion processes in thermal engineering systems’ and falls under the ‘Application-Oriented’ category. Put simply, the research concerns how heat is transferred in combustion processes and how this process can be represented as realistically as possible in computer simulations. In complex flames, different gases are present at very high temperatures, which can absorb and emit thermal radiation. Various gas-radiation models exist for simulating such processes. Ehlmé’s research offers recommendations on which models are suitable for specific complex flame simulations. The aim is to improve the selection of appropriate models so that technical combustion processes can be investigated and simulated more precisely.
The work is therefore more focused on specific technical applications than Andersson’s research. It can contribute to a better understanding and optimisation of thermal energy systems and combustion processes using computer simulations.
Stephan Elsen-Humberg – a new method for testing materials using hydrogen
Stephan Elsen-Humberg brings a different perspective to the group of award winners. He completed his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University and now works as a materials engineer at RWE Power AG. He is being recognised for his work ‘Tensile testing in high-pressure gaseous hydrogen using the tubular specimen method’, which also falls into the ‘Future-Oriented’ category. The focus is on how metallic materials behave when exposed to gaseous hydrogen at high pressure. Elsen-Humberg’s approach instead utilises a special tubular specimen geometry, known as the ‘tubular specimen method’. This allows the test to be carried out using only a fraction of the amount of hydrogen required by the traditional autoclave method. This reduces not only the hydrogen requirement but also the costs associated with technical safety. The innovation therefore lies less in a completely new material than in an improved method for testing materials for hydrogen applications. Particularly in view of the expansion of the hydrogen economy, such testing methods are important for reliably qualifying materials whilst reducing the effort and costs involved in the investigations.
Johannes Lips – Making power stations more flexible for the energy transition
Johannes Lips has a particularly international and interdisciplinary academic background. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Electromechanical Engineering from Ghent University in Belgium. He subsequently completed a European Master of Science in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and the University of Lorraine in France. He is currently a PhD candidate in the field of Energy Technology at the University of Stuttgart. His outstanding thesis is entitled ‘Assessing and improving the operational flexibility of grate-fired cogeneration power plants’ and has been recognised as ‘application-oriented’. It focuses on the question of how grate-fired combined heat and power plants can be operated more flexibly.
Lips is investigating how the operational flexibility of grate-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants can be assessed and improved. This covers both biomass plants and waste-to-energy plants – that is, plants in which waste is used to generate energy. Combined heat and power plants generate both electricity and heat simultaneously, which makes operational management even more complex: Not only electricity demand but also heat demand must be taken into account. Lips’ research provides insights into how such plants can be operated more flexibly in future. This would enable them to respond better to the demands of an energy system in which electricity generation from renewable sources fluctuates more significantly. His work thus combines traditional power station technology with the new requirements of an energy system increasingly characterised by renewable energy.
your participation in the
innovation award 2027
You would like to participate?
More information
on the 2027 Award will follow soon!!
Submission of proposals
Nomination
All vgbe member companies (executives) and the members of the vgbe Scientific Advisory Board have the right of nomination.
Online submission
Proposals comprise
- proposal form with a summary of the achievement indicating the award category (“application-oriented” or “future-oriented”)
- curriculum vitae of the nominees
- a list of publications (if available),
- copy of the publication which forms the basis of the proposal.
The awarding body is international. Therefore, we require – as far as possible – English-language documents.
Click here to submit your nomination for the 2027 Innovation Award.
Award criteria
Young university graduates or young professionals (age limit: 35 years) are awarded. Since 2019, the vgbe Innovation Award is awarded in the two categories “Application” and “Future” with correspondingly different evaluation criteria:
| Evaluation criteria | Application-oriented proposals | Future-oriented proposals |
|---|---|---|
| Scope and objective (problem statemant) | 15% | 20% |
| Methodology used (means of calculation or experiments) | 10% | 15% |
| Innovative implications | 15% | 40% |
| Technical, environmental and/or economical evaluation | 30% | 15% |
| Chances of realisation | 30% | 10% |
| Total | 100% | 100% |
The performance must be proven by a publication by the end of the preceding calendar year. A dissertation is not considered a publication.
The proposals are evaluated by the members of the Board of Trustees of the vgbe RESEARCH FOUNDATION .
Award guidelines
- The vgbe RESEARCH FOUNDATION annually awards the vgbe Innovation Award for outstanding achievements of young university graduates or young professionals (age limit: 35 years) in the field of power and heat generation and storage. The work to be awarded can relate both to innovations in the operation of plants and to significant results in research.
- The vgbe Innovation Award is given in the two categories “Application Orientation” and “Future Orientation”. The prize consists of a certificate and € 5,000 per prize category.
- All vgbe member companies and the members of the vgbe Scientific Advisory Board have the right of nomination.
- Proposers shall submit a justification of the proposal and supporting documentation by 30 April each year. The achievements on which the proposal is based must have been demonstrated by at least one publication or at least one public lecture by the end of the calendar year preceding the proposal. A dissertation is not considered a publication in this sense.
- The review and decision on nominations is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees of the vgbe Research Foundation. The decision is final and excludes an appeal.
- In case of equal performances, a division of the prize among several candidates is possible. If no work worthy of the award is proposed, the award may be suspended for one or more years. This applies to each of the two price categories.
- The prize will be awarded by the Chairman of the vgbe Research Foundation on the occasion of the vgbe Congress.
- The awardee(s) shall report on the selected work in the vgbe energy journal.
Contact
Vera Fricke
Phone: +49 201 8128 226
E-Mail: vera.fricke@vgbe.energy
vgbe Quality Award
the prize
Quality
made visible
The vgbe Quality Award is given to raise awareness in the industry of the commercial importance of quality and to recognise partner companies that have demonstrated exceptional quality in the delivery of their supplies and services.
- The award ceremony for the first-placed company will take place during the vgbe Congress. The company is given the opportunity to present the project in the vgbe energy journal.
- The runners-up will be named at the award ceremony and will also have the opportunity to present their projects in the technical journal vgbe energy journal.
-
All award winners will have the opportunity to present their projects at a subsequent vgbe events.
For this, please keep informed via our calendar of events:
vgbe event calendar. - The nominating company of the first prize winner will receive a complimentary ticket to attend the vgbe Congress.
Current awardees
vgbe Quality Award
As part of its fleet programme, PreussenElektra GmbH commissioned a consortium consisting of GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH and Höfer & Bechtel GmbH to dismantle the KKG reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and package it for final storage in the Konrad mine. The RDB cylinder, dome and cover were segmented using specially developed processes and dismantled into container-compatible units.
GNS was nominated on the basis of its successful transfer of the knowledge gained in the pilot project at the Unterweser nuclear power plant to the plant at the Grafenrheinfeld site, despite parallel project phases and high technical requirements.
Thanks to integrated organisation, trained personnel and innovative cutting technology, the work was even completed ahead of schedule and within the planned budget.
(f.l.t.r.: Dr Georg Stamatelopoulos, Tuncay Ertugrul, GNS mgH, Denis Gotic, Höfer & Bechtel GmbH, Dr Oliver Then)
Fuel conversion at EnBW’s Heilbronn power plant through a combined cycle power plant with combined heat and power generation
SOCOTEC Ingenieure AG honoured for civil engineering services/reinforced concrete structures at the Heilbronn power plant site
EnBW plans to replace the existing coal-fired power plant at its Heilbronn site with a modern, highly efficient combined cycle power plant with combined heat and power (fuel switch) generation in order to implement its corporate strategy of achieving climate neutrality by 2035.
The new power plant will be supplemented by a hot water boiler system and a heat storage facility to secure the district heating supply.
While the general contractor is responsible for the plant technology, the challenging concrete structures were awarded directly by EnBW due to difficult soil conditions, high groundwater levels and complex static and dynamic requirements. Particular challenges lie in the foundation planning, the static design of the steel structures as well as the precise and economical dimensioning of the machine foundations.
SOCOTEC Ingenieure AG was nominated for the vgbe Quality Award because of its wide-ranging expertise in structural and project planning, digital working methods for the planning, construction and operation of buildings (BIM), water protection (AwSV) and the planning and construction of water-impermeable concrete structures (WU). In addition, SOCOTEC has in-depth expertise in power plant construction, which was required for this project.
SOCOTEC proved to be a reliable and pragmatic partner throughout the entire project, which was reflected in excellent communication, documentation and organisation, as well as successful troubleshooting on site and off site, resulting in rapid construction progress.
Decommissioning of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and its internals at the Grundremmingen nuclear power plant
Norbert Braun Industrieservice GmbH received the vgbe Quality Award for reliable, punctual and flexible project management
Before the actual dismantling of the RPV and its internals could begin, 640 tonnes of concrete had to be removed, which was distributed over a total of four shielding and four cover plates to minimise radiation exposure to personnel working on site during power operation.
The concrete slabs, weighing between around 126 tonnes and approx. 55 tonnes, were located above the flood room and above RDB and settling basin on the +40.5 m level in unit B.
Norbert Braun Industrieservice GmbH, commissioned with the dismantling, was nominated for the vgbe Quality Award because, despite difficult circumstances that arose during the construction site set-up (enclosure of the workplace), the company impressed with its flexibility, adherence to deadlines and early completion of the RDB-E Lot 4.4 project, despite project changes and interruptions.
The decisive factors were initiative, simple acceleration measures and close coordination with all relevant parties, which prevented delays in the entire project. Overall, the company impressed with its holistic approach to quality, efficient and safe concrete demolition, and systematic “lessons learned” that are highly transferable to other dismantling projects.
your participation in the
quality award
2027
You would like to participate?
More information
about the Award 2027 will follow!
Submission of proposals
Nomination
All ordinary and supporting vgbe member companies have the right of nomination.
Online submission
Proposals comprise
- a description of the proposed project,
- a justification for its selection.
The awarding body is international. Therefore, we require – as far as possible – English-language documents.
Award criteria
The following criteria will be considered in the award decision:
| Evaluation criteria | Importance |
|---|---|
| Performance of the service or manufacture | 25% |
| Adherence to scheduling and budget | 20% |
| Informing the client of problems and new solutions | 15% |
| Implementation of health and safety standards | 10% |
| Planning and organisation of the project/communication | 10% |
| Documentation of the overall project and the quality delivered | 10% |
| Justification: Why is the project a good example of excellence? | 10% |
| Total | 100% |
The proposals will be evaluated by a jury, consisting of members of the five vgbe Steering Forums Wind Power, Hydro Power, Future Energy System, Thermal Power and Nuclear Power. The decision is final.
Contact
Dr. Thomas Eck
Phone: +49 201 8128 209
E-Mail: qaward@vgbe.energy
vgbe Safety & Health Award
the prize
Safety & Health
made visible
The vgbe Safety & Health Award emphasises the importance of safety and health in the generation and storage of electricity and heat and focuses on people.
Current awardees
vgbe Safety Health Award
The vgbe Safety and Health Award emphasises the importance of safety and health in the generation and storage of electricity focusing on humans.
In 2026, the award goes to EDP Gestão da Produção, S.A., or more specifically to the EDP FlexGen Safety Team, represented by Joana Godinho Kundel dos Santos.
The 2026 award goes to the ‘PlayitSafe Card Deck’, also known as the ‘Safety Dialogue Deck’. Behind this lies a deliberately simple, physical and bilingual solution: a set of cards in Portuguese and Spanish that integrates safety discussions directly into normal work routines. The cards are used, for example, during toolbox talks, regular team meetings or safety rounds led by managers. Each card contains a brief prompt and an open-ended question. The aim is to encourage employees to discuss specific risks, near-misses, safety observations and safe behaviour. The key idea is that the cards do not provide ready-made answers. Rather, they are designed to spark conversations. Safety awareness is thus not conveyed exclusively through formal training sessions, but is intended to become an integral part of day-to-day work. The peer-to-peer approach is particularly important here: employees are encouraged to talk to one another about safety risks and experiences and to learn from one another.
The project is therefore an interesting example of how an innovation does not necessarily have to be technologically complex. The safety team relies on a very accessible tool that can be easily integrated into existing work processes. The award particularly highlights the card set’s ability to stimulate discussions about near-misses and safety observations, thereby embedding safety awareness in everyday life.
(f.l.t.r.: Dr. Oliver Then, Geschäftsführer vgbe energy, Joana Godinho Kundel dos Santos, EDP FlexGen Safety Team, Dr. Georg Stamatelopoulos, vgbe-Vorstandsvorsitzender )
your participation in the
safety & health award 2027
You would like to participate?
More information
about the Award 2027 will follow!
Submission of proposals
Nomination
All ordinary and supporting vgbe member companies have the right of nomination.
Online submission
Proposals comprise
- a description of the proposed project,
- a justification for its selection.
The awarding body is international. Therefore, we require – as far as possible – English-language documents.
Click here to submit your nomination for the 2027 Safety & Health Award.
Award criteria
The following criteria will be considered in the award decision:
- Outstanding commitment to Safety & Health Compliance and Prevention,
- Demonstration of excellence,
- Innovative character,
- Connectivity for other projects, scalability, transferability,
- Effectiveness of the measures at site,
- There will be no second or third prize.
The proposals will be evaluated by a jury consisting of members of the vgbe Technical Committee Health & Safety and the vgbe Working Group Occupational Health & Safety. The decision is final. The decision is final.
Contact
Dr. Gregor Lipinski
Phone: +49 201 8128 272
E-Mail: shaward@vgbe.energy