Relationship with local communities
Relationship with local communities
Gasunie is committed to protecting the economic and social interests of local communities by minimising our negative impacts and creating positive impacts. With our energy transition projects and our investments in security of supply, we are engaging with local residents more than ever before.
In the first half of 2024, we put a lot of energy into informing local residents about the route planning for our future hydrogen networks. In the Netherlands we held information meetings, organised by Hynetwork, for land owners and land users in the provinces of Zeeland, Drenthe, Overijssel and Groningen. In Groningen, Hynetwork held a meeting for village interest groups and other stakeholder groups, and in Zeeland an information point was opened. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) also organised drop-in meetings for various sub-projects (south-western region of the Netherlands, North Sea Canal Area, Drenthe and Overijssel, Groningen), where we talked with local residents and interested parties (project procedure and participation).
Numerous information meetings for local residents were also organised in north-western Germany. The focus of our public information campaign was on our Achim site, which is set to eventually develop into a major hub for both the new LNG flows from northern German ports and for the Kernnetz, the German hydrogen backbone that we aim to build together with the other German TSOs.
Social return/employment participation
Gasunie is a major employer in the Groningen region and has the ambition of increasing employment opportunities for those who otherwise face poor job prospects. Gasunie believes that this group also has the right to have interesting jobs and wants to actively help them get these. Accordingly, in March we signed an agreement on this matter with the City of Groningen and the regional labour market organisation Arbeidsmarktregio Groningen. Gasunie has been integrating social return requirements, specifically requirements regarding employment participation, into its supplier and contractor contracts for two years now. This has already led to successful action, including in projects like WarmtelinQ, and at the head office, in cleaning contracts, for catering and for removal services.
‘Kitchen table talks’
We are currently conducting studies for the EIA for the future HyStock hydrogen storage facility in Zuidwending. We want to organise a catch-up session before the summer to discuss these studies (and the provisional results) and to review the preliminary sketches (first presented in October 2023) showing how the facilities will be integrated in the landscape. Over the past two months, one-on-one discussions have been held with residents living in the immediate vicinity of the energy buffer who have a direct view of the cavern locations. These ‘kitchen table talks’ centred on the preconditions and further details of the landscape integration of the plates installed above the caverns. The landscape agency will take the points raised into account and assess them during the further detailing of the landscape integration plans. Landscape integration is included as an appendix to the EIA.