Dutch utility company ENECO has been selected by railway companies NS and ProRail to power train stations, rail traffic control centres, offices, maintenance workshops and buildings with clean energy.
The five-year contract will see ENECO providing up to 225GW of green electricity to help NS and ProRail to decarbonise their operations and reduce carbon footprints.
The energy ENECO will provide as part of the contract is equivalent to the electricity required by between 65,000 and 70,000 households. The supply started on 1 January 2022.
Anneke de Vries, a member of the board of NS, said the deal to power its operations with solar and wind energy from ENECO is part of the company’s sustainability strategy.
De Vries added: “The aim of NS is to be fossil fuel free by 2040. This contract ensures that green energy will be used to power facilities such as lifts, escalators, and lighting. NS’s tenants at the stations can also make use of this green energy contract.”
Ans Rietstra, COO of ProRail, added: “Our ambition for 2030 is to reach a balance between the amount of electricity that we generate and the amount that we consume. This is a step by step process that includes increasing the number of stations with rooftop solar panels and the installation of solar panels on noise barriers.”
To illustrate this ambition, NS and the municipality of Delft opened Delft Campus station as per this new design.
NS, ProRail and ENECO will conduct a pilot on how the energy firms can optimise energy management to ensure consumption is in tandem with onsite solar and wind energy generation.
Matching consumption with generation on an hourly basis will help NS and ProRail move closer to their sustainability goals, according to a statement.
The pilot will include pairing onsite assets with energy storage as well as employing energy efficiency and demand response mechanisms.
