Challenges and solutions for the energy transition and digital transformation in a changing environment
With our business lines Infrastructure, Industry, ICT, and Building Solutions we design and build solutions for two themes: the energy transition and the digital transformation. We are facing several challenges in a rapidly changing world and evolving markets in the coming years.
Scarcity in the labour market
All our business lines and brands are experiencing a shortage of technical specialists in the labour market and insufficient outflow from technical studies. We respond by training more people in-house and by doing more with the people who are available. For example, even smarter working, even better cooperation in the chain, and far-reaching automation. Up to now, the scarcity in the labour market has not caused problems for us because we always manage to attract enough new people. We are looking for new ways, including with lateral entrants.
Innovations to advance the energy transition
We have been reducing the CO₂ footprint of our own organisation for many years. For example, by making our buildings more sustainable with solar panels and by introducing an electric car fleet. Many of the projects we work on for our clients are touching on energy transition. For example, expanding and modernising the high-voltage network. Axians supports clients by making smarter use of data and creating insights. Actemium uses solutions to monitor energy and to make energy available in different ways. Building Solutions provides solutions to make buildings smarter and more sustainable.
Together with client and suppliers, our business lines innovate the project approach to solutions, and we look for more sustainable solutions. By using less packaging and reducing waste flows and residual flows. But also by improving the logistics and making it more sustainable.
Support clients with the energy transition
Omexom, the brand for infrastructure, is completing many projects for grid managers, such as connecting green power from solar parks and wind farms. Omexom also supports industrial clients with far-reaching electrification. Axians advises clients on how they can design their ICT as sustainable as possible by offering more sustainable equipment and making efficient use of that equipment. Axians provides insight into the carbon footprint of customers’ cloud usage and operational processes and advice on how to reduce CO₂-emissions. Actemium helps clients to obtain insight into their energy consumption and provides solutions for reducing that consumption. The local brands of VINCI Energies Building Solutions create integrated systems for their clients with heat pumps and solar panels, for example. For example, VanderLinden developed the modular Power&Park concept, a charging area with solar panels and possibly a wind turbine on site to charge cars and e-bikes.
The impact of the digital transformation on our market approach
Omexom designs in 3D: Building Information ModelingM. It is faster and prevents possible errors. By using a fourth element for planning, Omexom is even better able to – manage projects. In Building Solutions all the paperwork is electronic, and BIM is used increasingly for smaller projects, for the engineering phase, project management, and quality control.
In Actemium, our brand for industry, the digital transformation is also playing an ever-greater role. That brings new players to the market too. However, achieving successful vertical integration – with knowledge of the various technologies, processes and information flows – requires domain knowledge and expertise of the industry. Actemium has that knowledge. In addition, Axians provides digital transformation solutions to enterprises through information technology.
Trends in the various markets in which our brands are active
Infrastructure: Everyone is looking for ways to do things faster and to solve grid congestion. Target Grid 2045, with a high-voltage grid with direct current, will contribute. Batteries are used sparingly because of their high costs. The nitrogen decree impacts client’s opportunities to carry out projects. Grid management involves the use of more and more data.
Industry: Chemical and metal-producing companies will become more sustainable with green hydrogen.
Exports of machinery and food products are going down. Stock reductions have led to production shrinkage in certain sectors, such as basic chemicals, base metal, and the plastics industry. Existing machinery and systems are used longer with extra maintenance and overhauls.
ICT: The ICT market is developing at lightning speed. The innovative power increases all the time, also due to the use of AI. Security is more important in every project, in all markets and for all ICT applications. The transition to cloud continues apace and 5G provides new opportunities. We also see a critical convergence of OT and IT, assigning an even more important role to IT in critical infrastructures.
Building Solutions: The energy transition will continue to boom for years. With our clients and suppliers in the value-chain we will cooperate more in relation to sustainability with more attention to reduction of waste, for example by opting for heat pumps and phasing out gas. Smart buildings generate more and more data. This data will be used more to really work on predictive maintenance and to save energy.
Brand-specific challenges and solutions
Infrastructure: The congestion in the grid is a major challenge. Solutions include expansion of the grid and developing a true smart grid. The scarcity in the labour market will continue to be an impediment to realising the ambitions of the energy transition.
Industry: Over the coming years, industry will have to make massive investments to make factories and processes even more sustainable and to contribute to the energy transition. With changing consumer demand for diversity of products but also due to cost-price reduction and availability of personnel in industry, there will be a greater need for mechanisation, automation, robotisation, and informatisation.
ICT: The security of systems and the cloud. The increasing speed of the innovations is an ever-greater challenge for clients. Which choices should they make? We can assist. Clients are also looking for agility, and by offering ICT solutions as a service (Naas and Saas), we provide flexibility, continuity, and scalability.
Building Solutions: Increasing building automation produces more and more data. It also changes the work of our employees, as it is becoming more challenging. Our clients, our employees and shareholders demand more and more sustainability.
Ready for the future
The markets, the labour market, the technological developments, and society impose higher requirements on sustainability and produce a changing and challenging environment. As VINCI Energies Netherlands – with our complementary diversity in expertise where we serve an enormous range of clients, and because of our management philosophy and flexible and robust organisation model – we are well equipped to continue providing solutions for the energy transition and the digital transformation over the coming years.
“The scarcity in the labour market continues to be a challenge. We are recruiting people from foreign countries. And our Omexom Institute also provides training. It is worrying when you see the outflow from the relevant regular schools in the coming years. .We try to make our work as interesting as possible. What could possibly be better than contributing to making our society more sustainable?”
“Over the coming years, industry will have to make massive investments to make factories and processes more sustainable, to contribute to the global energy transition. With changing consumer demand for diversity of products but also due to cost-price reduction and scarcity of personnel in industry, there will be a greater need for mechanisation, automation, robotisation, and informatisation.”
“AI will become more important. We will see the use of more algorithms; the learning ability of systems will increase. IT in combination with AI, data and domotics provides many opportunities for dealing with staff shortages in the care sector.
IT and AI will also become important to making production chains more sustainable, making the grid smarter, and solving scarcity issues. Axians will grow in this expertise with dedicated experts.”
“In all our markets we notice that the use of new systems means that more and more data will become available. All this data only becomes valuable when we convert it into information. This information can then be used to take the next step towards predictive maintenance and optimising maintenance for our clients. This trend also makes the work for our colleagues more interesting and more challenging.”