Environmental dimension

Relevance

As part of the Paris Climate Agreement, the international community agreed to completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels in power production by 2050. The final declaration of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow (COP26) in November 2021 increased the pressure on industrialised countries to take and implement tough measures to protect the climate. In addition, the declaration cemented the phase-out of coal-fired power production.

Alpiq will contribute to achieving the goal of fossil-free power production by 2050. After all, contributing to climate protection is an integral part of Alpiq’s purpose. This is why Alpiq is extensively turning to environmentally sound energy production, including CO₂-free and climate-friendly Swiss power production. Environmental protection and air pollution control play a crucial role in the construction of our power plants. Alpiq is taking effective measures to reduce emissions in every project.

Alpiq is aware that flexibility is becoming ever more important as the market penetration of power production from new renewable energies continues to improve. As a result, efficient and extremely flexible gas-fired combined-cycle power plants are required to maintain security of supply wherever there is a lack of storage power plants (hydropower), which is currently the case in most European countries. Alpiq operates these kinds of power plants. The associated emissions are duly reported.

Management approach and assessment

One of the system tools that Alpiq introduced to monitor and reduce the ecological impacts of its thermal power plants is a management system for its power plants based on the standard ISO 14001, which is certified in accordance with the EMAS environmental management system in some cases. All Alpiq gas-fired combined-cycle power plants are certified in line with ISO 14001.

Both ISO 14001 and EMAS are focused on monitoring environmental indicators to assess the ecological performance and on conducting audits to check the conformity and improvement of ecological processes. Both programmes strive to continuously reduce pollution.

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from fossil fuels.

Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from electricity consumption and district heating.

Scope 3 is limited to the presentation of indirect emissions from energy procurement from minority shareholdings.

This year, all buildings owned or leased by Alpiq were included for the first time in the calculation of GHG emissions in Scope 1 and 2. All vehicles owned or leased by Alpiq were also recorded for the first time.

This year, all types of power plants were included for the first time. During this analysis, it was determined that the pump energy is generated with electricity from nuclear energy and not with an average Swiss mix. This in turn has an impact on the balance sheet for GHG emissions in Scope 2 and Scope 3.

Scope 1 and Scope 2 were recorded in full. In Scope 3, only the energy procurement from minority shareholdings is reported.

The nitrogen oxide emissions (NO_x) are measured online in all gas-fired combined-cycle power plants. Emissions primarily depend on the production of electricity and steam, which can fluctuate depending on market conditions or customer requirements. Alpiq is constantly modernising its power plants. In doing so, the company makes use of the best available technology, including dry-low NO_x facilities in order to reduce NO_x emissions and thus protect the environment. Alpiq meets or surpasses all European and local environmental requirements for gas-fired combined-cycle power plants.

At the nuclear power plants in which Alpiq holds shares, there were no radiation doses to environment above the legal limits in 2020 and 2021. Further information on radiation doses can be found in the ENSI Radiation Protection Report 2020 (ENSI-AN-11075) and 2021, to be published mid-2022.