Carbon usage at Liander mainly arises from the grid losses that occur during the transmission of energy. Every year, Liander consumes some 1,600 gigawatt hours of electrical energy to offset its grid losses. This figure is comparable to the energy usage of about 355,000 households in the Netherlands. As a good corporate citizen, Liander has opted to offset these grid losses in a sustainable manner, i.e. through the procurement of Guarantees of Origin (GoOs). GoOs are the only way to demonstrate electricity was generated by renewable sources, and they currently enable Liander to offset the carbon emissions from about 40% of its grid losses.

Borssele Wind Farm

Liander has committed to the procurement of GoOs from the Borssele III and IV Wind Farm which is being developed by the Blauwwind consortium comprising Partners Group, Royal Dutch Shell, Van Oord, Eneco and Diamond Generation Europe. Shell Energy Europe Ltd is the off-taker for 50% of the power and associated GoOs from the Borssele III & IV Wind Farm. The 10-year contract will offset the carbon emissions from Liander’s grid losses by additional 11% to 14% starting from 2021.
Facilitating the energy transition

Mascha van Vuuren, Customer and Market Director at Liander: “Liander has opted to exclusively purchase GoOs from newly built renewable energy sources in the Netherlands. Long-term arrangements have been, and will be made, for this purpose. This is how Liander aims to help facilitate the energy transition.”

Hans Stinis, General Manager of Products and Market Development of Shell Energy Europe Ltd: “We are looking forward to supplying these Guarantees of Origin for green electricity for Liander as they seek to meet their carbon reduction ambitions. This agreement is in line with our strategy to provide solutions to customers that aim to reduce their carbon footprint in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe.”

Climate-neutral operations

Apart from greener procurement for grid losses, Alliander is reducing its carbon emissions in numerous other ways, such as by developing energy-efficient locations, making its corporate fleet more sustainable and taking circularity measures. The network company aims to be climate-neutral by 2023.