Recalibration of the 2023-2027 strategy

In 2022, we recalibrated our strategy for the 2023-2027 period. We involved a range of stakeholders in this process, including customers, employees, municipal authorities and of course our shareholders. The focus of our new strategy is on Construction, Optimisation and Management.

Focus on our grids

Giving everyone in our service area access to sustainable energy: that is our social mandate. This is impossible without a properly functioning grid. Our main focus in the years to come, therefore, will be on our grids. Grid capacity is our top priority. We will build grids faster, optimise the way we use them and continue to ensure effective grid management. In this context we have one overriding ambition: ‘a congestion-free Stedin area: grid access for all’. Everything we do will contribute to these goals.

The three pillars of our new strategy

Construction: we are laying even more cables and pipes and building additional stations. That is how we can connect all of our clients to our energy grid, including new customers and producers. We do so in two ways: by starting construction earlier and by building faster. We can start earlier for example by purchasing land at an earlier stage. The purchasing of the land we need to build our stations is a time consuming business, and spatial planning processes account for up to 70% of the processing time of investments in our grid. To speed up the process, we are partnering with municipal and provincial authorities, for example, to ensure the infrastructure requirements are incorporated into municipal plans and environmental strategies in a timely manner. We also aim to shorten permitting procedures, for example by improving our applications and submitting them earlier. However, Stedin cannot ‘start earlier’ without the help of local authorities and the central government. To accelerate the construction process, we need more technical talent. To that end, we will intensify our recruitment efforts and expand our intake in in-house training classes. We will also work more effectively, for example by benefiting from innovations such as modular construction, work process digitalisation and more flexible deployment of fitters. Finally, we will enter into long-term contracts with building contractors and suppliers of commodities and raw materials.

Optimisation: construction alone will not suffice. We will also need to optimise the way we use the grid. How? For example, by continuing our grid digitalisation campaign to obtain full insight into our medium-voltage and transmission grids and identify opportunities to maximise capacity efficiency. By finding smart ways to combine customers’ wishes so as to reduce the need for new infrastructure, where possible. By examining possibilities to convert electricity into heat or hydrogen and repurpose our gas grids in this way. And by utilising flexibility as a means to cover the time required for grid reinforcements, and to postpone or prevent such reinforcements.

Management: of course we will also continue ‘simply’ to manage the quality of our grid, as we want our energy supply to remain safe and reliable. We do this by means of a targeted replacement policy and by reducing the time we need to remedy failures.

In addition, we strive to:

• provide excellent services to our customers;

• provide market parties with the data they need, and when they need them;

• transform our operations so as to become a climate-neutral, circular, (bio)diverse and inclusive organisation;

• utilise our gas infrastructure for the use of sustainable gases and research into the transmission of hydrogen.

To enable all this, we will ensure that a number of key preconditions are met:

• safety for our employees, customers and our environment;

• sufficient funding;

• professional employees, leadership and culture, and ample capacity for change;

• cybersecurity.

The goals and priorities of our new strategy are described in: Focus areas in 2023