Built Environment

Alternatives for existing buildings

All local authorities in the Netherlands must provide a Transition Vision for Heat by the end of 2021. They shape the direction of the approach that local authorities choose to achieve a carbon-free built environment. Our area directors and account managers support municipalities with a range of tools for filling in the roadmap.

The heat transition is a transition of many small steps, which together make a big impact. The Stedin Opening Bid, for example, helps municipalities decide how to take these first steps by identifying alternatives to natural gas for each area. A random survey among municipalities in the Stedin area shows that 75% of them are familiar with the results from the Opening Bid.

Stedin has also developed Opportunity Maps to provide insight into the available grid capacity. This information gives municipalities quick insight into whether their intended plans are likely to succeed. When a municipality identifies a district as promising, it is made more sustainable by means of collective and individual transition pathways.

Where it is still too early to take major steps, we work on making homes 'natural gas-free ready'. Insulation and hybrid heat pumps are valuable steps toward reducing CO₂.

Removing natural gas connections

Joint approach for Jan Evertsenplaats (block of flats) renovation project in Zwijndrecht.

Stedin is working with housing association Vestia on this project in Zwijndrecht, which includes more than 200 homes, spread across a 12-storey high-rise block and a lower 4-storey block. Vestia is renovating the homes and is giving the residents the choice to switch from using gas to cook to using electricity (induction). Residents who make the switch are provided with an induction cooktop by Vestia. Stedin removes the gas pipelines and reinforces the electrical system, if needed. Roughly 50% of the residents so far have registered a willingness to switch from gas to electric cooking. As a result, connections criss-crossing the block of flats will need to be retained, and it is likely that not a single vertical pipe (riser) can be removed. This is a highly undesirable situation for Stedin, as the complete infrastructure remains in place and will need to be maintained. In addition, risers run through parcels that no longer have any connection, so there is no gas present according to our systems. This is a new situation for Stedin, but one that will undoubtedly become increasingly common in the future. In the coming year, we will improve our approach and the related process and ensure that our systems can record this information and residents' registration. We are also examining what possibilities there are to convince more residents to make a certain choice for safety reasons. After all, we cannot remove the entire gas grid, down to the street level, until the last customer decides to switch from gas.

The total number of gas connections that were removed to enhance sustainability in 2020 is 4,448 within the service area of Stedin and DNWG. The figures for December 2020 have been extrapolated, as they were not yet confirmed at the time this annual report was definitively adopted.

Pipe puller

For many customers who want to permanently disconnect from the gas grid, removing their own connection to the main grid is disruptive, as it involves digging up their garden to take out the gas pipeline. To meet their concerns, we are carrying out a pilot with a 'pipe puller'. The aim is to limit digging on private land to a hole in the outer wall and a hole at the plot boundary, through which we can extract the pipeline without having to dig a trench. The test results are increasingly encouraging, and we expect to have the 'pipe puller' operational in early 2021. The main added value of the pilot is less inconvenience for customers. The potential impact of this working method on our cost price will become clear in 2021.

Test beds for Natural Gas-free Districts

The government is promoting moves to enhance the sustainability of the built environment through various grants and subsidies. In the first round of the Natural Gas-free Districts Programme, 7 of the 27 test beds are located in the Stedin area; in the second round, 3 (Goeree-Overflakkee, Rotterdam and Pijnacker-Nootdorp) of the 19 test beds are in Stedin's service area. Each district is characterised by its own dynamics and planning phase. In the 'Stad aan het Haringvliet' test bed, for example, we are learning how to use hydrogen as an alternative to natural gas. Other test beds are teaching us about the impact of heat grids on the existing infrastructure.

Housing associations driving the energy transition

The housing association sector has been designated as a catalyst of the energy transition in the Climate Agreement. We saw a 29% growth in the number of enhanced sustainability initiatives among housing associations in 2020. This is due, on the one hand, to the substantially increased number of projects being realised and, on the other, to Stedin improving insight into these processes as well. In absolute numbers, fewer projects are being undertaken by housing associations than there are neighbourhood-specific programmes by municipalities. However, the former are being implemented more quickly. In autumn 2020, Stedin joined with the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and housing association Aedes to organise knowledge sessions with the aim of learning from one another's experiences.

Natural gas-free new housing developments

In 2020, 92% of the connections requested for new homes in our service area were natural gas-free. The national figure for 2020 was 87%.

Heat grids

Stedin Group seeks to accelerate the energy transition by actively exploring how to improve the sustainability of the heat supply in the built environment within its service area. In addition to electrification, collective sustainable heating is an alternative to make the built environment natural gas-free. NetVerder B.V. (which operates in the 'non-regulated' segment) therefore continued developing a portfolio of projects focused on collective heat systems in the past year driven by the public interest. You can read more about this topic in the section on Non-regulated activities.

Collectives desk

Stedin's Collectives Desk answers questions that energy collectives may have on subsidy schemes, feed-in connections and meters. In 2020, Stedin connected 20 projects of energy collectives, with feed-in connections for returning energy to the grid. (2019: 31).

Heat transition and hydrogen

Our gas network is of great social and economic value. Heating homes with sustainable gases and hydrogen may offer an alternative in the future, alongside fully electric and heat grids. In this way, we can give our gas network a new lease of life. To render hydrogen useable as a viable alternative, it is important, therefore, that we gain knowledge and experience with hydrogen (and how to transport it) now. We are doing this in various projects, including in Uithoorn, Rotterdam Rozenburg and The Green Village in Delft.

The knowledge and experience that we gain in these projects will be used to help ensure that Stad aan ’t Haringvliet can make the switch from natural gas to hydrogen via Stedin's existing natural gas grid in 2025. This switch can be made if there is sufficient support among residents, provided that it is safe and affordable. In 2020, a declaration of intent jointly signed by Stedin was presented to residents. The cooperating parties have made progress in terms of technical understanding (what will the overall hydrogen system look like) and organisation. Under the leadership of the municipality, an application was submitted for the Natural Gas-free Districts Programme. This resulted in €5.6 million being allocated.

In December 2020, 14 houses in Uithoorn that are scheduled for demolition were specially prepared for temporary heating using hydrogen. This is a technology that is still in its infancy worldwide and is now being applied for the first time in the Netherlands by Stedin. The conversion from natural gas to hydrogen consists of several steps, which include inspection of existing gas pipelines and connections both at the street level and in the houses and heating the houses using special hydrogen central heating boilers. This teaches us what exactly a conversion from natural gas to hydrogen entails for us as a grid manager and for the parties with whom we work.

The pilot with hydrogen boilers was continued in Rozenburg. The hydrogen production unit was updated, and inspections are being carried out to assess whether the pipes in Stedin's existing gas grid are clean enough on the inside for hydrogen distribution. The preparations for experimenting with hydrogen in The Green Village in Delft have been completed, paving the way for the first projects to be carried out in 2021.

In 2020, Stedin started researching hydrogen quality and odorisation (adding a specific odour, so that hydrogen becomes identifiable by its smell, just like natural gas), among other things. A hydrogen lead group was formed within Stedin, and hydrogen is a topic of discussion across the organisation. Together with the national government, Stedin has taken several important steps as regards regulation.

Within Netbeheer Nederland, Stedin is working with other grid managers in the field of hydrogen as well. Experiences are exchanged and research is conducted jointly. An example is our participation in the HyDelta research programme, which focuses on removing barriers that are impeding the scaling-up of hydrogen projects.