Transition Talk podcast series
March 31, 2020
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Index
Episode 1 | A hydrogen economy in the future—how and when?
Episode 2 | Challenges and lessons learned in district heating
Episode 3 | Flexibility: integrating more renewables in the grid
Episode 4 | Purpose-led transformations
An introduction to Transition Talk
The energy system is undergoing radical changes in light of the sustainability push, which is changing the way the world works and lives. Listen to new insights on the latest developments in the energy transition.
As part of the energy transition, sustainability moves to the heart of businesses forcing them to carry out a systemic shift. Be prepared and ensure your sustainability initiatives are future-ready in this new economy. You'll also need to transform existing business models to unlock new value in a purpose-driven sustainable world.
In collaboration with our ecosystem, we've developed this podcast series called Transition Talk. Here, we discuss different elements of the energy transition with industry experts and share their insights and opinions.
The world is changing toward a sustainable future. Stay in touch with the latest insights in the energy transition
Episode 1: Hydrogen
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Hydrogen is increasingly mentioned as an indispensable link in our future energy system. In our first podcast episode, we discuss how and when we can achieve a hydrogen economy with experts from the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate and Gasunie.
Hydrogen has huge potential as a sustainable energy carrier and feedstock in the manufacturing industry, transport sector and heating of the built environment. Moreover, hydrogen may play an important role in system integration as increased flexibility is required to keep the grid stable.
As part of the energy transition, demand for energy is being electrified, while the share of renewable energy on the supply side is steadily increasing. Due to these immense developments in the energy system, balancing energy supply and demand across space and time becomes even more challenging. Hydrogen can play an important role in sector coupling of the electricity and gas grids, thereby stabilizing the system as a whole.
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Melissa Stark, Global Renewables Lead at Accenture, Noé van Hulst, Hydrogen Envoy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy, and René Schutte, Program Manager Hydrogen at Gasunie, discuss the role that hydrogen may play in our future energy system. Especially, green and blue hydrogen are discussed, as well as the timing and scaling of a hydrogen market and possible regulatory changes to stimulate a hydrogen economy.
Listen to this episode to learn more about how we can achieve a hydrogen economy.
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Meet the speakers
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René Schutte
Progam Manager Hydrogen - Gasunie
René Schutte is Program Manager Hydrogen at Dutch energy utility Gasunie. René joined Gasunie in 2006, where he worked as Category Manager Energy and managed the Projects Industry and Markets department before becoming the Program Manager Hydrogen. He develops a hydrogen program at Gasunie and prepared a concept hydrogen program for the Dutch Climate Agreement.
VISIT RENÉ'S PROFILE
Noé van Hulst
Hydrogen Envoy - Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy
Noé van Hulst is Hydrogen Envoy at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy. Prior to that, Noé has been the Dutch Ambassador to the OECD, Chairman of the IEA Governing Board and held positions at the Energy Academy Europe, the International Energy Forum (IEF), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
visit NOÉ'S profile
Melissa Stark
Global Renewables Lead - Accenture
Melissa Stark is a managing director in Accenture with over 25 years of experience working across all sectors of the energy industry. She focuses on R&D/technology, investment and decision support, and supply. Melissa is Accenture’s Global Renewables Lead and has authored more than 40 papers and articles over the last 10 years.
visit MELISSA'S profile
Our hydrogen insights
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How Gasunie accelerates the energy transition
How can Gasunie become more purpose-driven and move toward CO2-neutral sources of energy to accelerate the energy transition? Find out how they've achieved it.
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Tata Steel's 3 steps to becoming carbon-neutral
Steel manufacturers face disruption from many angles. Tata Steel, with its 100-year legacy, is no exception. Learn from Roger Steens how Tata Steel has redefined its purpose.
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The role of hydrogen in the energy transition
Energy storage is key for a successful energy transition. Hydrogen is a promising renewable, but can large-scale hydrogen storage play a pivotal role for Dutch system operators?
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Hydrogen suitability for households
How can hydrogen become a renewable energy option for you and me? In this infographic, we've put together the factors that influence the suitability of hydrogen for households.
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Episode 2: District heating
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District heating plays a vital part in moving toward a more sustainable heating energy system. In the second episode of our transition talk, we discuss the challenges of implementing district heating networks and how to overcome these with experts from Vattenfall and the Heat Network Foundation (“Stichting Warmtenetwerk“).
Heating in buildings accounts for over half of residential energy consumption via space heating and hot water production, and, therefore, represents a significant share of CO2 emissions. In the energy transition, district heating is able to produce sustainable heat by distributing heat from various readily available sustainable heat sources to the consumer.
However, the implementation of district heating networks comes with many challenges. These challenges are, for example, issues around business cases and tariffs, roles and responsibilities, and customer participation and satisfaction in the district heating market. How to overcome these challenges and what are the lessons learned so far?
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Johnny Hesp, Energy & Sustainability Solutions Specialist at Accenture, Arno van Gestel, Director Sales Heat at Vattenfall, and Erik Stronk, Chairman of Heat Network Foundation (“Stichting Warmtenetwerk“) and former CEO at Ennatuurlijk, discuss current challenges and lessons learned for district heating network operators and stakeholders.
Listen to our district heating podcast with the audio player below.
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Meet the speakers
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Erik Stronk
Chairman of the Board - Stichting Warmtenetwerk
Erik Stronk is Chairman of the Board of Heat Network Foundation (Stichting Warmtenetwerk). This foundation provides a platform for all players taking part in the district heating value chain. Prior to that, Erik has been CEO of Dutch district heating company Ennatuurlijk and held positions in advisory boards of various companies specialized in sustainable area development.
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Arno van Gestel
Commercial Director Heat Netherlands - Vattenfall
Arno van Gestel is Commercial Director Heat Netherlands at international energy utility Vattenfall. He is in charge of sales, marketing and product management, contracting and stakeholder management for Vattenfall in the Dutch district heating market. Arno has been representing the district heating companies in drafting the Dutch Climate Agreement.
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Johnny Hesp
Business Integration Manager - Accenture Industry X.O
Johnny Hesp is Business Integration Manager at Accenture and is responsible for services and innovation in the field of energy management. Johnny joined Accenture in 2015 as part of an acquisition. Over the past 15 years, Johnny has been actively involved in developing, building, and operating district heating networks across Europe.
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Our district heating insights
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Boosting the energy transition with a digitally-enabled heat grid
Can district heating play a significant role in the Dutch energy transition? We believe so. WarmtelinQ shows how a digitally-enabled transmission network can have a major impact.
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Coriance customer story – Cloudy with a chance of operational visibility
How can a heating company collect, standardize, validate assets, and gain real-time operational insights? With a single source of truth, Coriance can now optimize the performance of their heat sources and network in the cloud.
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Anticipating the future Dutch district heating system
There's an urgent need to transform our obsolete heating system into a sustainable one. District heating will play a major role in the Dutch energy transition. Learn more about current and future district heating systems and get to know how to leave your competitors behind.
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Episode 3: Flexibility
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Energy flexibility plays an increasingly important role in securing a stable energy system. In the third episode of our Transition Talk, we discuss the challenge of incorporating more flexibility measures into our energy system with experts from Tennet and Giga Storage.
With flexibility, we mean the ability of an electrical system to respond to changes in the electricity supply and demand. The need for flexibility is growing owing to a rising share of renewables in the electricity mix—which have intermittent supply characteristics—and the electrification of energy demand. That’s why balancing and congestion issues can manifest themselves on different levels of the grid.
To solve this, we discuss a variety of flexibility solutions in this Transition Talk podcast, like storage technologies, interconnections, and demand response technologies. Each solution differs in size and impacts a different part of the electricity value chain. A closer look is also taken at the Rhino battery from Giga Storage, the most powerful battery project in the Netherlands. How do innovations like these provide system flexibility? And how can we secure a stable energy system in the future?
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In episode 3 of our Transition Talk series, Jan-Paul Dijckmans, Associate Director Strategy & Partnerships at Tennet, Ruud Nijs, Founder of Giga Storage, and Lonneke Tabak, Consultancy Manager Energy Transition at Accenture, discuss the challenges and developments regarding flexibility in the electricity system.
Listen to our Flexibility podcast with the audio player below.
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Meet the speakers
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Jan-Paul Dijckmans
Associate Director Strategy & Partnerships - TenneT
Jan-Paul Dijckmans is Associate Director Strategy & Partnerships at the first cross-border electricity transmission operator TenneT. He is also part of the Supervisory Board of BritNed and NOVEC. Jan-Paul joined TenneT in 2001 and has worked in several management positions such as offshore DC Interconnectors and Regulatory Affairs. In his current role, he is responsible for strategy, business development, innovation, digitalization, flexibility, CertiQ and the North Sea Wind Power Hub program.
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Ruud Nijs
Founding Partner & CEO - GIGA Storage
Ruud Nijs is the Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer at GIGA Storage, responsible for the company’s general policy. GIGA Storage brings breakthrough solutions to large-scale energy storage. Ruud is a business economist with extensive experience in business strategy, financing, sustainability and corporate social responsibility. His experience is a culmination of many years working in high-level positions, as well as being advisory and board member at several companies such as ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Greenbank and Sustainable Trade Initiative.
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Lonneke Tabak
Technology Consulting Manager - Accenture
Lonneke Tabak is Strategy & Consulting Energy Transition Manager in Accenture’s Utilities group. Her focus is on flexibility in energy markets and hydrogen. She's passionate about the energy transition and the possibility to make our energy supply 100% sustainable. Prior to joining Accenture, Lonneke led a project to connect electric vehicles to the primary reserve market by demand-response. Overall, she has comprehensive expertise and knowledge of the Dutch energy market, demand-side management and electric mobility.
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Our energy flexibility insights
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Capturing value in managing energy flexibility
A new energy landscape presents novel approaches to managing and delivering flexibility across the utility value chain. Explore in our report how to smooth renewables volatility.
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Consumers offer added flex for European power
Consumers can help uncover new sources of flexibility to help balance electricity supply and demand. Learn how this can create a variety of new opportunities for energy providers.
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Networks that matter: the digitally enabled grid
Explore our digitally enabled grid research and see why it's time for utility distribution businesses to take charge of their future. How can you maintain networks that matter?
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Episode 4: Purpose-led transformations
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The purpose of a company is to engage all its stakeholders in shared and sustained value creation. Moving beyond the focus on shareholders and profit, companies should refocus on serving all their stakeholders—employees, customers, suppliers, local communities, and society at large. In this sense, purpose has a lot to do with the path toward a more sustainable world, which includes the transition to green energy.
In the fourth episode of our Transition Talk podcast series, we discuss the importance of a clear company purpose to achieve sustainability goals and recover in a time of crisis, with experts from Nyenrode University/Lab Toekomstige Generaties and Nudge.
The energy transition is one of the biggest system transformations we currently face as a society. For companies, setting a clear purpose, a mission that is incorporated in their DNA and that touches employees on a personal level, is key to unlocking the creativity and inspiration needed to be successful in this transition.
This is even more relevant in the current global context, where COVID-19 has pushed hard on a global pause button and raised the sense of urgency for companies to both survive and also drive long-term business resilience. During this podcast, we’ll further investigate to what extend COVID-19 has set a new way of thinking about the connection between sustainability and business.
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In episode 4 of our Transition Talk series, Jan van Betten, Founder at Nudge, Tineke Lambooy, professor Corporate Law and CSR at Nyenrode University and member of the Dutch Lab 'Toekomstige Generaties', and Adriana Begeer, Senior Manager Energy and Sustainability at Accenture Strategy & Consulting, discuss the challenges and developments in purpose-led transformations.
Listen to our Purpose podcast with the audio player below.
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Meet the speakers
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Prof. Dr. Tineke Lambooy LL.M.
Professor Corporate Law - Nyenrode Business University
Tineke Lambooy is a Professor of Corporate Law at Nyenrode Business University. Tineke conducts (multidisciplinary) research projects concerning corporate law, corporate governance, and CSR. She raises the question of how corporate law can assist in creating systemic change in the implementation of sustainability goals by companies. Legal forms and innovative business models for social enterprises are also within her interest area. In her research, Tineke focuses on the interaction between business, policymakers and legislators, civil society, and other stakeholders.
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Jan van Betten
Founder - Nudge
Jan gave up his corporate career to become a serial entrepreneur and investor in sustainable businesses. He founded Nudge, the largest sustainability platform in the Netherlands, and the Nudge Global Impact Challenge, a global leadership development program for young leaders. Jan is also an advisory board member at several CSR-related organizations, including De Energiebank, the Mary Chirwa Foundation, and The Pollinators, to name just a few. And last but not least, he's a proud father of two.
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Adriana Begeer
Senior Manager - Accenture Strategy & Consulting, Energy & Sustainability Lead, the Netherlands
Adriana leads the energy and sustainability practices for Accenture the Netherlands' Strategy & Consulting group. In this role, she supports clients with holistically approaching the energy transition, defining their purpose, and setting up their business and digital transformation agenda. Prior to joining Accenture, Adriana worked for several large consulting companies with a focus on supply chain management, sustainability, and the public sector.
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