Water and Marine Resources

To identify material IROs related to water and marine resources, Alpiq conducted a DMA as described under ESRS 2 SBM-3 48. With regard to water and marine resources-related IROs, Alpiq also conducted consultations as described under ESRS 2 IRO-1 53.

Specific policies with regard to water and marine resources do not currently exist at Alpiq for all locations and/or assets.

Nevertheless, as described under E1-2 24 and 25, Italy has an integrated health, safety, and environmental policy in place. Spain and Hungary also have a health and safety policy and a separate environmental policy in place. These environmental policies provide high-level guidance on the management of water and marine resources.

As an example, based on the environmental policy in Spain, Alpiq’s San Severo plant is equipped with a zero liquid discharge (ZLD) system. In a ZLD system, which is a closed-loop system, all wastewater is either recycled or evaporated, thus leaving zero liquid waste to be discharged, which allows the used water to be recycled.

As for actions related to water and marine resources, some actions have already been taken at Alpiq’s plants.

The hydropower plants capture water from rivers to convert into energy. The water is extracted upstream of the facility, turbined and then returned downstream. In this process, the water is returned entirely to nature, without pollution or alteration. Water used for hydroelectric generation is not considered to be consumed.

Furthermore, cooling water discharges from all Alpiq’s CCGT power plants are controlled by measuring temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and density in order to assess the impact of these discharges. The results of the analyses of the samples show that no signs of disturbance to the water and marine environment were detected that could be attributable to the operation of the CCGT power plants.

For Plana del Vent specifically, which is located in an area with a highly sensitive marine environment, an extensive environmental monitoring and exploitation control programme is in place that ensures controls of the plant’s impacts on the marine environment. The cooling water discharge area of the plant undergoes checks for temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, density, inorganic nutrients, suspended matter, chlorophyll a, and microbiological indicators. According to the latest results, no signs of disturbance of the marine envi­ronment have been observed that could be attributable to the operation of the Plana del Vent CCGT power plant.

While some actions have already been taken, there are currently no targets in place at Alpiq with regard to water and marine resources.