Work package of Enexis Netbeheer B.V. increases to record level

According to the annual report that was published today, Enexis Netbeheer B.V.’s work package in 2019 – relating to the upgrade and maintenance of the energy grid –  amounted to no less than € 804 million. The energy transition is moving forward, and the grid operator's work package will increase further in 2020 to a record € 878 million. This represents an increase of almost 50% since 2015. Carrying out the growing work package with a shortage of technical staff presents a challenge to Enexis Groep. As in 2019, the grid operator will focus on four priorities in 2020 to ensure the work package is achievable and that it’s carried out smart and efficient.

Peter Vermaat, CEO of Enexis Groep: “ Whilst we are working hard to build the energy system of the future, ensuring a secure energy supply every day is still what matters most to our customers. Our outage time for electricity has been low for many years, and averaged 14.2 minutes in 2019 (2018: 16.0 minutes). Enexis will therefore stick to its course amidst the turbulence of the energy transition. It is our task to ensure an energy supply that is safe, reliable, affordable and accessible to everyone, both today and in the decades ahead. This is a difficult assignment, because we - like those in the rest of the sector - need many new employees to perform the work that needs to be done. We are therefore taking the steps to increase recruitment, create extra training capacity at the Enexis Technical Skills Academy and develop training programmes with external training institutes. Another challenge is that we must make long-term investments in renewable connections now, even though the definite design of the new energy system is not yet ready. We work with Dutch municipalities and provinces on formulating Regional Energy Strategies, which are local designs for the energy system of the future. In all our service areas, we are arguing for the most efficient energy system, with renewable electricity, sustainable gas and sustainable heating. In this way, we are utilising the existing infrastructure to the full and keeping the transition on track.”

Four priorities

In 2019, we prioritised working safely, customer-driven work, improvement projects for the customer, and accelerating the energy transition. This helped us to strengthen the focus on our activities and we will continue with the same priorities in 2020 to ensure consistency.

• Safe working always has top priority. It is what Enexis values most. We want everyone to return home safely and in good health every day. Every accident is one too many for us. In 2019, there was a decline in the number of accidents that involved our own employees and resulted in absenteeism (LTIF  of 1.16, compared with 1.48 in 2018) and of employees of contractors that work for us (LTIF of 2.58, compared with 4.53 in 2018). For several years now, our safety score has been improving. We also notice that safety awareness within the organisation is steadily growing.
• There has been a sharp increase in demand from consumers and businesses. The economy is growing, and therefore plenty of investments are being made in improving sustainability. Enexis therefore prioritises customer-driven work over maintenance and replacement, provided that our networks and work continue to be safe. The number of customers feeding energy back into the grid has trebled in the past five years, from some 118,000 feed-in connections in 2015 to approximately 400,000 in 2019. Although transmission capacity is limited in some places, we were able to provide positive transmission capacity statements for 87% of the applicants for the SDE+ renewable energy grant scheme. Renewable generation increased to some 2,500 MW, which is sufficient to power approximately 1 million households using solar energy.
• The expansion of our work package and the lack of available staff and materials demand greater focus. We need to do the  work for our consumers and businesses more efficiently or smarter. In 2019 we carried out various improvement projects for the customer and we made our processes smoother, faster and more efficient. This benefits customers and staff alike. We also used more data to plan, organise and monitor our work, so we stay in control and can further improve our services.
• In order to accelerate the energy transition, we are developing achievable and affordable solutions. Our service area comprises ten energy regions and in these regions we act as a partner to the Dutch provinces, municipalities and water boards when they formulate their Regional Energy Strategies. In this context in 2019, we visualised the possibilities available to municipalities to clarify where we could quickly connect the highest possible number of renewable projects.
  
  

Financially sound

Our net profit for 2019 amounted to € 210 million (2018: € 319 million due to a large one-off release from employee-related provisions and a non-recurring tax expense in 2018). Excluding non-recurring items, the net profit for 2019 came to € 228 million (2018: € 243 million). In 2019, Enexis saw revenue rise to € 1,491 million (2018: € 1,445 million), largely as a result of higher tariffs. By contrast, operating expenses increased due to a larger work package and because we stepped up our efforts to achieve our key priorities. These were notably around recruitment and training of technical staff, facilitation of the energy transition and future-proofing of ICT systems.

A robust financial position is crucial for Enexis so that it can finance its growing investments in the energy grids. Enexis has a solid financial foundation and a strong credit risk profile credit risk profile with an A+ credit rating from Standard & Poor’s and an Aa3 credit rating from Moody’s. We expect to make greater use of capital providers - both debt providers and shareholders - to finance our growth.