As a manager of critical infrastructure, Enexis ensures a reliable, affordable and sustainable energy grid for households, businesses and public institutions. In doing so, we contribute to the broad prosperity of the Netherlands, economically, ecologically and socially, now and in the future.
Enexis has been working within the sector for several years to understand broad prosperity better. By measuring its impact, the company is gaining an increasingly clear picture of its societal contribution. This year, for the first time, Enexis is reporting in line with the Corporate Sustainability Directive (CSRD), which helps to focus attention on environmental and social impacts. In addition, together with the Stedin Group, Alliander and Gasunie, the company has launched the four-year coalition Sturen op brede welvaart (Steering for broad prosperity).
This coalition builds on existing partnerships in impact measurement. Using an impact model, Enexis assesses the environmental, social and economic impacts annually, both within its own operations and throughout the supply chain. These impacts are measured using the Impact Weighted Accounts Framework and expressed in euros to facilitate comparisons and support informed decision-making.
The energy transition poses impact-related dilemmas. For example, understanding the different interests at play when expanding grid capacity – such as balancing environmental costs against financial considerations – supports better-informed decisions. Enexis is, therefore, working with the coalition to develop tools such as dashboards and an investment assessment framework to improve decision-making.
More details can be found in our accountability document and the Impact Measurement Infra Companies Manual.
Every year, we improve the impact model to identify impacts more accurately. In 2024, this led to a model change in the calculation method for the produced capital at the grid operators. Employee development impacts have also been harmonised with the Sturen op brede welvaart coalition. Details of these changes can be found in the accountability document. The reported 2023 figures have been restated to reflect the updated methodology.
The amounts in financial capital below are rounded to millions. The amounts within produced capital, human capital, and natural capital are rounded to 10 million, except for ecological damage from waste and accidents and employee absenteeism, which are rounded to tens of thousands.
Financial capital
In 2024, the level of investment in the energy transition was again higher than last year. Building a future-proof energy system requires significant financial resources, as the current regulatory methodology does not allow current investments to be recovered in tariffs in the short term. As a result, we pre-finance our operations and issued a new green bond in 2024 to finance our operations and investments. To remain financially healthy, we continue to promote socially responsible choices, improve efficiency and productivity, seek a balance between tariffs and returns, and strengthen equity where possible.
Payments from our customers in 2024 (€2.6 billion) increased compared to 2023 (€2.0 billion), mainly due to higher tariffs. Combined with the issuance of the green bond issued (€0.5 billion), this led to an increase in available financial resources.
In addition to long-term value creation, our role and position in the energy chain also creates short-term value for our stakeholders. Our employees are paid for their efforts and time (2024: €0.7 billion; 2023: €0.6 billion). We pay our suppliers for goods, services and assets (2024: €2.4 billion; 2023: €1.9 billion), through which Enexis generates income and work for other parties.
Overall, our efforts stimulate the economy and create long-term employment, income and wealth.
Manufactured capital
The produced capital relates to the value of the services provided by Enexis. To achieve the energy transition, Enexis invested more in strengthening the electricity grid in 2024. Therefore, more was spent on the procurement of goods and services, resulting in a greater negative impact (2024: € -2.4 billion; 2023: € -1.8 billion). In 2024, the contribution of electricity transport to consumer welfare increased (2024: € 3.2 billion; 2023: € 2.8 billion).
The value of the procurement of goods for gas transport was € -0.2 billion; (2023: € -0.3 billion). For gas transport, the impact on consumer welfare (2024: € 1.2 billion; 2023: € 1.2 billion) is comparable to last year because a similar amount of gas was consumed.
Natural capital
In 2024, we are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our activities. The negative impact on the climate due to our CO₂ emissions is estimated at €260 million (2023: €260 million). We reduce our impact in scope 2 through the purchase of Guarantees of Origin (GoOs). The carbon emissions in scope 1 that we (still) could not prevent are offset with Gold Standard certificates.
Moreover, ecological damage caused by material use remains a challenge. The purchase of materials for network expansion contributes to this impact, estimated at €30 million (2023: €30 million). We strive to reduce our impact by focusing on the use of secondary (recycled) material in the composition of components.
Ecological damage can also arise from waste. We prevent ecological damage from waste as much as possible through optimal separation of streams, so that they can be processed in the most valuable way, for example through recycling. Our ambition is to return raw materials to a new function as much as possible and thus contribute to a circular economy.
Read more in the sustainability statement.
Human capital
Human capital refers to the well-being and productivity of employees. The well-being impact of having a job increased in 2024 (2024: €70 million; 2023: €60 million) as Enexis attracted more talent on balance, thus increasing the number of employees in 2024. As a result, the negative impact of accidents and absenteeism related to the material topic of safety and health also increased slightly (2024: €1.4 million; 2023: €1.3 million).
The impact on employee development, including training and skills development, decreased (2024: €90 million; 2023: €100 million). In 2023, technical employees were more highly graded and had more opportunities for promotion. As a result, the 2023 impact was an unusual outlier, creating a higher benchmark for subsequent years. This explains the decrease in impact in 2024.