Terms, abbreviations and definitions
ACM
ACM is the Dutch initialism for the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets, the regulator charged with supervision of competition, industry-specific market surveillance and consumer protection. As part of its remit, ACM oversees compliance with the Electricity Act and the Gas Act.
Gross investments
Expenditure during the year on the expansion or replacement of property, plant and equipment, and intangible assets.
CBL (cross border lease)
A cross-border lease is a structured finance transaction by virtue of which a business sells the rights of use for certain property, plant and equipment to a foreign company, only to lease these assets back.
Circular procurement
The percentage of circular procurement in kilograms relative to the total of the following core assets: pipes, cables, meters, transformers and switchgear.
CO2 equivalent
The effect of greenhouse gases other than CO2 converted into CO2 values.
Carbon emissions from own operations
Carbon emissions from own operations are direct and indirect emissions from activities under our operational control. This includes Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, as well as Scope 3 emissions related to operations, such as mobility. These are processes and operations under the direct influence of the organisation, irrespective of whether they are performed internally or by third parties.
Committee of Shareholders
The Committee of Shareholders as referred to in Section 158(10), Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code, if this has been appointed by the General Meeting of Shareholders.
Congestion management
Congestion management is the system used at times when the electricity grid has insufficient capacity for customers who consume or feed in electricity. This system ensures that the available transmission capacity is spread as fairly and efficiently as possible. In an area where a shortage of capacity is imminent, parties participating in the system are asked to consume less power or to return more power to the grid for a fee. These measures can prevent the impending shortfall from occurring.
Eco-costs
Eco-costing is a method of expressing the environmental burden of a product. It is based on the costs that will be incurred in preventing that burden.
ECP
Euro Commercial Paper is a short-term debt instrument issued on the international money market.
EMTN
Euro Medium Term Notes are long-term debt instruments issued on the international capital market.
Energy transition
The transition away from generating energy from fossil fuels to sourcing power from renewables, like the sun, wind or water, for example.
Guarantee of Origin
A Guarantee of Origin (GO) is a certificate proving that electricity was generated from renewable energy sources, such as wind power, hydropower, solar power or biomass plants.
Green bond loan
A financing instrument, the proceeds of which are used exclusively to finance assets that are defined in detail in the Green Finance Framework.
Green finance
This refers to the issuing of bonds and ECP where the proceeds are used exclusively to finance assets that are defined in detail in the Green Finance Framework.
High-voltage network (HV)
Network intended for the transmission of electricity at a voltage greater than 35 kV and operated as such.
Feed-in
The supply of electricity fed into the electricity grid from power generating sources.
Supply chain responsibility
A situation in which a company assumes responsibility for the entire value chain involved in its activities and for the impact these activities have in social, ecological and economic terms, and renders account accordingly, including engaging in a dialogue with stakeholders. The whole process is result-driven.
Customer convenience
The degree to which customers experience convenience. We use the Customer Effort Score (CES) method to measure the convenience of service processes from the customer’s point of view. The CES represents customer convenience, i.e. the degree of effort (expressed as a percentage) the customer had to put into getting things arranged with respect to their grid connection. We distinguish between different customer groups: Private Customers, Maintenance & Outages, Business Customers and Large Corporate. Business Customers refers to customers who need to be physically connected for the first time or whose connection needs to be upgraded or removed. This concerns the entire journey from the offer phase to execution and delivery. Large Corporate concerns the management of existing large corporate customers, such as contracting, contract amendments, relocations and other customer administration processes.
Climate Agreement
The Climate Agreement (i.e. the Dutch Climate Agreement) aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands by 49% compared with 1990 levels by 2030. These targets stem from the climate agreements made by the international community in 2015 in the Paris Agreement and are set out officially in the Climate Act in the Netherlands. The climate agreement is therefore not a law itself, but gives substance to the objectives of the Dutch Climate Act.
Credit rating
An assessment by independent rating agencies, such as Moody’s and S&P, of Alliander’s creditworthiness.
Low-voltage network (LV)
Network intended for the transmission of electricity at a voltage less than or equal to 1 kV in the case of an AC voltage network, and less than or equal to 1.5 kV in the case of a DC voltage network, and operated as such.
LTIF (Lost Time Injury Frequency)
The number of work-related accidents during the financial year in which internal employees (Alliander and agency/contract worker) were involved and which led to sickness absence after the accident, expressed per million of man-hours worked. For an accident to be considered a lost-time accident, it must have led to at least 24 hours of sickness absence.
People with poor employment prospects
The number of employees who meet the requirements for the target group register under the Dutch Quota Act for Persons with Poor Employment Prospects.
Employee survey: enthusiasm and engagement
An employee survey conducted according to the Effectory methodology in which employee engagement and enthusiasm are measured. Alliander wants to know how its employees feel in relation to work. We measure this by investigating employee engagement and enthusiasm. Enthusiastic and/or engaged employees are a key success factor within an organisation. Engaged employees feel connected to the organisation they work for. Enthusiastic employees are committed to getting the best out of themselves and their work.
Medium-voltage network (MV)
Network intended for the transmission of electricity at a voltage level greater between than 1 kV, but less than or equal to 35 kV, and operated as such.
Net investments
Gross investments less contributions to these investments received from third parties.
Net debt
The sum of long and short-term interest-bearing liabilities less cash and cash equivalents and investments.
Net debt/(net debt + equity)
Net debt position divided by equity including the result for the period and the net debt position.
Grid losses/network losses
There are two components to grid losses or network losses: technical losses and administrative losses. Technical grid losses refers to the electrical energy that is dissipated in overcoming the inherent resistance of cables, transformers and other components in the network. Administrative grid losses refers to losses due to fraud and theft of electricity and loss of potential income due to empty properties.
Unresolved valid voltage-related complaints
The number of complaints about under- or overvoltage that have been found to be justified, but have not yet been resolved.
Position on the Safety Culture Ladder
The position on the Safety Culture Ladder defines the level of safety awareness and safe behaviour within an organisation across five steps. It measures the extent to which safety is embedded in business culture. The higher the step on the ladder (from 1 to 5), the greater the extent to which safety forms a self-evident part of daily work processes, attitudes and behaviour.
Smart meter
The smart meter enables remote reading of electricity and gas meters to obtain information on consumption and status. In addition, a smart meter can execute remote instructions. The communication with the meter takes place via the cable network (Power Line Communication) or via GPRS.
Solvency ratio
The solvency ratio is obtained by dividing equity including the profit for the period less the expected dividend distribution for the current financial year by total assets less deferred income.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are individuals and groups who have any form of interest in Alliander such as employees, shareholders, customers, financiers, suppliers and public authorities.
Regulation of tariffs
With respect to public utilities, the process whereby the government sets the maximum rates that network operators are permitted to charge for their services.
Transmission restrictions
Due to the rapidly growing demand for electricity and the increase in feed-in, in more and more places the electricity grid has reached its full capacity. In these areas, when generators of green electricity and large companies that consume large volumes of electricity request more capacity on the power grid, they are subject to transmission restrictions. This means they are placed on a waiting list and can only access the extra capacity once there is again sufficient capacity on the grid. This additional capacity is created when the network operator expands the grid or can deploy a smart solution.
Electricity outage duration
The average number of minutes during which a connected party was without power due to an unplanned service interruption, measured as the number of minutes per connection per year.
The concept of usage minutes can be defined in greater detail as the product of the number of connected parties affected and the duration of an (unplanned) service interruption in minutes.
The total number of minutes can be defined as the sum of all minutes of all (unplanned) service interruptions in the financial year.
The number of connected parties is defined in detail as all active connections with a capacity of more than 6A, regardless of whether they have an accommodation function, other than public lighting.
Replacement of brittle gas pipes
The number of kilometres of grey cast-iron and asbestos cement pipes that have been replaced.
Employee absenteeism
The moving average sickness absence over a 12-month period (short, medium and long duration) for Alliander staff, not including absence on account of pregnancy.
Free domain
The activities that are carried out in competition and/or arise from the statutory tasks and are offered at the customer’s request. This includes the construction, maintenance, renewal, and management of connections to the electricity network with a load of 10 MVA and above for specific customer groups, including public transport and public lighting.
Free cash flow
Cash flow from operating activities less net investments in non-current assets.
Women in managerial positions
Refers to the number of women holding a leadership position (all employees who manage other employees), expressed as a percentage of the total number of employees with an employment or agency contract.
Working capital
Inventories plus trade receivables and other receivables, less short-term non-interest-bearing debt and other liabilities.