E.ON AG's (EOAN.XE) restructuring program, which includes a massive reduction of its global workforce, could cost the German utility in excess of EUR1 billion, two people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.

One of the persons said that the costs of implementing the restructuring program--dubbed E.ON 2.0--will be between 75% and 150% of the targeted savings.

E.ON hasn't yet detailed the expected costs of its restructuring program, under which it plans to reduce its controllable costs by around EUR1.5 billion by the end of 2015.

However, one of the persons said that the savings could be up to EUR2 billion when taking account of inflation effects.

The comments come after E.ON late Tuesday said it has struck an agreement with workers' representatives and labor unions over how to reduce the work force, including early retirement, severance payments, and an employment and training company. Mandatory layoffs were largely ruled out.

E.ON has said that it intends to cut up to 11,000 jobs globally, including around 6,000 in its home market Germany . Overall E.ON employs around 80,000 people.

The job reduction plans are part of a broader effort to bring down costs after E.ON and other major German utilities last year were hit by the government's decision to accelerate its planned exit from nuclear energy. That decision, a political reversal, exacerbated an already difficult market environment for the utilities, which have been suffering from low power and natural gas prices.

E.ON's plans to cut a large chunk of its workforce had initially caused bad blood between the company and its employees, with labor unions threatening strikes if the utility didn't rule out mandatory redundancies.

Wednesday, E.ON's top workers' representative welcomed the agreement with the company. Hans Pruefer, head of the group's workers' council, said the agreement could become "the basis for a renewed cooperation between employees and the company".

He said, however, that unions and workers' representatives still haven't accepted official goal to reduce the workforce by around 11,000 globally.

"We aren't committing to any concrete figures, because our goal is to keep the loss of jobs to a minimum," said Pruefer.

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