Eneco remains the most sustainable electricity provider among the large energy companies

The sustainability of all the electricity suppliers in the Netherlands is assessed each year by Wise, environmental organisation Natuur & Milieu and the Dutch Consumers’ Association. In the latest ranking, published on 14 December 2021, Eneco’s score on the consumer market ranking was 9.0. This means that Eneco remains the most sustainable electricity provider of the large energy companies.

The score of 9.0 according to the study underlines Eneco’s course towards the company and its customers being climate neutral by 2035. In order to achieve this, increasing the sustainability of energy continues to be the aim. Eneco’s investment in more sustainable production capacity includes the development of several new wind and solar energy farms. In this way, all consumer customers at Eneco can count on green energy.

Business market
Increasing the sustainability of energy supplied to business customers is also very relevant when it comes to accelerating the energy transition. According to the report, Eneco’s score on the business market is 5.5, which is more than a full point higher compared with last year. Making the business market more sustainable requires more time given the large size of this market and because part of the business market still prefers grey electricity. Step by step, we are working towards the goal of supplying all business customers with only green electricity by 2030 at the latest and to stop selling grey electricity.

Sustainability ranking
The publication of the electricity suppliers ranking by the NGO’s makes the extent of the sustainability of energy companies transparent. However, the underlying methodology that is used for the ranking allocates relatively little weight to investments in sustainable production capacity. As a result, suppliers can attain the maximum score and head the ranking without having invested a single euro in solar panels or wind turbines. This does not do justice to suppliers who do invest in renewable capacity on a large scale, but at the same time still have to use a gas-fired power plant to ensure that there is back-up capacity when there is no wind or when the sun isn’t shining. Eneco calls on the NGOs to improve the methodology in this area so that the ranking will provide even better insight in the coming years into which suppliers contribute to the acceleration of the energy transition.