Netherlands will soon have the choice of another energy supplier for electricity and gas: Shell. The oil and gas company is going to supply electricity to people at home, and has already received a licence from the regulator ACM.
It will be ‘CO2-compensated gas’ and green electricity that the company purchases on the energy market from Dutch solar and wind farms. How much power and gas Shell will supply is not clear. Barbara van de Bergh, who has to lead the energy supply in the Netherlands, says she wants to become a’ significant ‘ player.
“We want to offer this because we want to play a leading role in the energy transition”, says Van de Bergh. “In addition, we think it is important that we actively help people to make their energy consumption more sustainable.”
Currently, most of Shell’s investments go to the extraction and sale of oil and gas. Recently, the company was forced by the court to reduce its emissions more quickly.
But according to Van de Bergh, the decision to supply green electricity and gas to Dutch customers is separate from this. The company already does this in Great Britain and Germany. She cannot say how much the supply of green electricity and gas to households contributes to reducing emissions.
Shell is not only under pressure to reduce its own emissions. The company is also reforming its revenue model. In the future, it wants to focus more and more on trade in energy, rather than tapping or generating it.
The group is still earning money from oil and gas extraction, but it is expected that the market for oil and gas will shrink in the coming decades. There is less money to be gained from generating electricity, which makes trading in energy more attractive for Shell.
The company previously tried to take over the Dutch energy supplier Eneco, but was beaten by the Japanese company Mitsubishi. So now Shell itself is taking the step to deliver to consumers at home. It expects the first customers to join at the end of this year.
