Optimised Portfolio Planning for the Energy Transition – The Enexis Story
Enexis is one of the three largest distribution system operators (DSOs) in the Netherlands, responsible for the construction, management and maintenance of the gas and electricity network in the North and South East of the country. Tim Grim, Asset Investment Planning Expert at Enexis, recently presented a webinar on Enexis’ journey to value-based decision-making and the benefits they have realised with the implementation of Copperleaf® Portfolio™ for streamlined asset investment planning.
In order to accommodate the ongoing energy transition, Enexis must realise an 80% growth in its investment portfolio by 2025. As the volume and diversity of the company’s portfolio continues to increase, Enexis relies on the Copperleaf solution to create the optimal long-term investment plans with the needed flexibility to adapt as targets and constraints change over time.
Grid operators like Enexis face the complex task of having to make investment decisions to transform and expand the grid for the energy system of the future, without knowing how governments, businesses, and households will adapt to the decentralisation of the energy system. The DSO also faces a myriad of challenges driving the need for enhanced asset investment planning, including rising energy costs, supply chain disruptions, personnel shortages, and a growing need for digitalisation.
The Copperleaf solution helps Enexis address these challenges by identifying the highest value data-driven decisions based on optimised strategic and tactical investment portfolios. The solution is underpinned by a value framework which forms the basis for investment evaluation, scenario analysis, and portfolio optimisation. This enables Enexis to compare and trade off dissimilar investment options or projects on a common economic scale, considering both financial and non-financial metrics.
From strategic goals to operational activities
A clear line of sight between the organisation’s strategic objectives and operational activities ensures effective control, accountability and transparency. The Copperleaf solution enables Enexis to see how investment options contribute to its goals, and highlights variance between planned and actual performance to ensure a continuous planning process.
Driving outcomes in an uncertain future
To ensure the highest value investment plans are being created against a backdrop of uncertainty, Enexis has incorporated three climate scenarios in its investment planning process. These climate scenarios include, among other factors, the Netherlands’ ambition to achieve a 55% reduction in CO2 by 2030. With the Copperleaf solution, Enexis can easily create and compare investment strategies under these different climate-scenarios and optimise its portfolio to make the highest outcome decisions—aligned with its corporate strategy—as circumstances shift and change.
Creating standardised and defensible business cases
Instead of calculating projects individually, planning teams can now utilise standardised cost templates with predefined estimates for capital and operational costs, as well as resource demands. Planners can produce estimates much faster, increasing the accuracy and consistency of estimates by eliminating bias and reducing manual errors.
Enexis now has the business agility to adjust investment portfolios and calculate alternative scenarios based on new developments in the energy sector, changing performance requirements, and/or shifting financial and resource constraints.
Watch the full webinar on-demand to learn more.