Our contribution to the goals is determined by measuring impact. Together with other grid operators, we are able to determine this increasingly precisely. We expanded our impact measurements in the focus area human capital in 2023 with the development of employees.
In our impact model, we show our impact in euros on these six categories of capital, in which a comparison is made between the realisation in the current year and the previous year. This model provides an integrated image of our value creation for our stakeholders and our contribution to the SDGs and thus forms a type of social annual report.
The work on and investments in the energy system of the future increased further in 2023, which has resulted in a decrease in financial capital. Furthermore, the well-being value of, in particular, gas transmission for consumers and the value of energy transmission for business customers rose as the willingness to pay has remained high despite price increases.
The impacts are categorised in accordance with the value creation model of the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), which categorises these impacts in six capitals: Financial, Manufactured, Intellectual, Natural, Social, and Human Capital. Enexis quantifies one or several indicators for the capitals Financial, Manufactured, Natural and Human. The capitals are explained in more detail below.
Financial capital
Our investments in the energy transition were again higher than last year. A large amount of financial capital is required to finance the energy system of the future, as it is not possible to recoup the current investments in the short term via the tariffs given the existing regulation method. Therefore, we have to pre-finance our activities. We issued a new green bond in 2023 and the proceeds from the sale of Fudura B.V. in 2022 were also used to finance our operational and investment activities.
Payments received from our customers in 2023 (€ 2.0 billion) increased compared to 2022 (€ 1.7 billion), mainly due to price increases, and together with the issued green bond (€ 0.5 billion) and the proceeds from the sale of assets in 2022, this resulted in an increase in financial capital.
Besides long-term value creation, our role and position in the energy chain also provide value for our stakeholders in the shorter term. Our employees receive a salary for their work and time (2023: € 0.6 billion; 2022: € 0.6 billion). We pay our suppliers for goods, services, equipment, and machinery (2023: € 1.9 billion; 2022: € 1.3 billion), with which Enexis generates income and work at other parties.
On balance, our activities stimulate the economy and we generate long-term employment, income, and prosperity.
Manufactured capital
Enexis's contribution to the well-being value of gas transmission for consumers amounted to € 2.9 billion, which is higher than in the previous year (€ 2.2 billion). Revenue rose in 2023 due to higher tariffs (three-year average). The distributed volume of gas decreased with 10% compared to 2022.
Enexis's contribution to the well-being value of electricity transmission for consumers amounted to € 2.2 billion, which was equal to 2022. Revenue rose in 2023 mainly due to higher tariffs; however, this was partially offset by a slight reduction of the distributed volume of electricity (-2%).
The value of energy transmission for business customers amounted to € 0.6 billion in 2023 (2022: € 0.5 billion). The increase can mainly be attributed to price increases.
The value of purchased goods has been increased in 2023 for gas transmission as well as for electricity transmission and amounts respectively € 700 million (2022: € 500 million) and € 1,550 million (2022: € 1,100 million).
Within the contribution of electricity transmission to well-being, the impact of feeding electricity back into the grid that Enexis enables is taken into account. More and more consumers are feeding renewable electricity back into the grid. Within the contribution of electricity transmission to well-being, we also calculated a positive prosperity effect from households feeding solar energy back into the grid of nearly € 18 million. The well-being value for consumers was corrected for the effect of gas and electricity outages at Enexis in comparison to the average in the Netherlands. Our electricity grid was more reliable than the average in the Netherlands in 2023 with, on average, 0.23 unplanned outages and 20.0 minutes outage duration per household. At 137 seconds, the outage duration of our gas grid per household per year was higher than the average in the Netherlands.
Natural capital
The negative impact on the climate due to the emission of CO2 by our activities was € 250 million in 2023. This impact equals that of last year, mainly because the transmitted volumes of gas were in line with 2022. Enexis is trying to reduce the negative impact by helping to accelerate the energy transition and by improving the impact of its own operations. We compensate the emissions, which we are unable to influence directly and which cannot be green purchased, with Gold Standard Certificates. Ecological damage due to waste and the purchase of materials rose in 2023. The increase in ecological damage as a result of the purchase of materials is largely due to the strategic increase of our materials inventory necessary to expand and upgrade the electricity grid. The ecological damage caused by waste has increased due to a higher ecological valuation of incineration.
You can read more about this in the section Making a sustainable impact.
Human capital
Enexis contributes to the well-being of employees through the work that the organisation offers them. The positive impact value amounted to € 60 million in 2023 (2022: € 50 million) and is increased mainly due to an increase in the number of employees compared to previous year. Employee satisfaction, measured based on the outcomes of the employee satisfaction survey in 2023, has a direct positive effect on well-being. Employee engagement scored 7.8 in 2023, which is the same as last year.
Safety and the prevention of work-related complaints have a high priority at Enexis. Despite this high priority, there were cases of long-term work-related absenteeism and safety incidents. This has a negative impact on the positive value of having a job and amounted to € 1.3 billion (2022: € 1.2 million). The higher impact is due to an increase in the number of accidents. The LTIF has improved compared to the previous year, as there were fewer accidents in proportion to the number of working hours in 2023.
The development of employees was included in our Impact Model for the first time in 2023. For the development of employees, we look at the creation of human capital as a result of experience gained and training. This is measured based on upward mobility opportunities within the organisation and the corresponding increases in salary. The total increase in human capital is attributed to Enexis and future employers based on age, retention percentages and retirement age. The positive impact in 2023 amounted to € 90 million (2022: € 50 million). The increase is mainly attributable to the fact that technical employees were placed in a higher scale in 2023 and have a better upward mobility prospect.
For the method and the most important criteria, reference is made to the section About this report.