Climate change adaptation

The changing climate affects our operations. That is why we have a policy in place that focuses on climate adaptation.

Climate adaptation policy  ^{(ESRS E1-2 PAR. 25B EN MDR-P 65A)}

In the longer term, global warming will increase the risk of flooding, severe droughts, prolonged heat, and high wind speeds. Our infrastructure is essentially resilient to these kinds of events. Flooding could cause power outages for customers. See the climate risk analysis for more information. Our climate change adaptation policy aims to prevent the effects of potential flooding:

• High-voltage substations (HVS) at risk of flooding are built in partnership with TenneT on elevated sites, behind our own dykes, and/or equipped with manually installable barriers to keep water out.

• Mid-voltage substations (MVS) and low-voltage substations (LVS) are resistant to fresh water; they remain operational even when submerged. In the event of saltwater flooding, we switch off equipment as a precaution. Saltwater is a good electrical conductor, which significantly increases the risk of short circuits.

• Nationwide, the government is taking measures to minimise the risk of large-scale flooding. We are following the government's lead.

If extreme weather conditions do cause power outages, we have a process and incident management organisation in place to restore security of supply.

This policy applies both to our own operations and to (part of) the value chain. ^{(ESRS 2 MDR-P 65b)}

Measures for climate adaptation

No additional policy measures are required in the area of climate adaptation. The likelihood of flooding in our service area is low, and the outages during recent flood events were limited^{(ESRS E1-3 par. 26 en ESRS 2 MDR-A par 68a)}. We consider the residual risk acceptable for now and monitor it through our Risk and Opportunity Based Asset Management system. This involves regularly assessing and weighing assets, risks, and opportunities to invest and maintain assets effectively.

Metrics and targets related to climate adaptation

Policy and measures for climate change adaptation are reflected in, among other factors, the KPI Annual Outage Time (AOT).^{(ESRS 2 MDR-M par 75)} We aim for high reliability in our grid. Enexis' infrastructure can withstand a wide range of extreme weather conditions. Floods can disrupt electricity supply to customers. This outage is then reflected in the AOT, calculated for Enexis Groep as a whole.^{(ESRS 2 MDR-T par 80a en 80c)} An explanation of the methodology, objective, and implementation of the AOT can be found in S4 – Consumers and end users.

In addition, we carry out an objective climate risk analysis each year for the relevant assets, based on the latest KNMI scenarios. Where new insights are significant, they are translated within 12 months into updated policies, design criteria, or investment frameworks.