Stakeholder management

Case
Energy transition

Optimising Rotterdam’s electricity grid

Stedin

Stedin has optimised the electricity grid in parts of the Rotterdam city centre over the past few years. TwynstraGudde worked in close cooperation with Stedin’s stakeholder manager to ensure that the interests of the local stakeholders were also included in the technical project. In order to keep inconvenience to a minimum, our consultants coordinated the project with almost 30 other urban projects and took care of stakeholder management and communication. Stedin is a Distribution System Operator.

Contact

The electricity grid has been renewed, allowing residents and businesses to continue to purchase and return electricity without any problems in the future. The old 10 kV grid has been replaced by a higher capacity 23 kV grid. At the same time, the transformer and switch installations have been renewed. The work was done in phases between 2016 and 2019. The project was carried out in a busy urban area where nuisance was inevitable. Pavements and streets were under construction in order to install 30 kilometres of new cables, while allowing for traffic and diversions for the closure of the Maastunnel. The power supply was interrupted at regular intervals. The 16 new transformer building also have an impact on the street scene. TwynstraGudde was asked to coordinate the cooperation between the parties involved, to align all projects in the city with this project and to organise stakeholder management in relation to the residents.

Project coordination: working together in the outdoor space

TwynstraGudde’s consultants helped Stedin organise meetings between the project team and other parties, such as the municipality of Rotterdam. The aim was to steer towards an integrated approach by collating, structuring and coordinating data around the route. Stedin’s internal planning was geared to maintenance work on the gas network. Externally, activities were geared to maintenance work on sewerage, buildings and roads. This is how we worked together on the outdoor space.

Communication with the stakeholders

Right from the planning phase, the local stakeholders were taken into account, with regard to events and pavement cafés, for instance. We identified the interests of external parties at an early stage and translated them into preconditions for the implementation schedule. Sometimes the work had to be moved forward or actually delayed to address pressure points or to profit from opportunities.

Our consultants also helped coordinate communication with residents and companies. We translated the issue and stakeholder analysis into a communication calendar and set up the communication process, which we coordinated with the municipality and the contractor. In addition to door-to-door letters, extra communication meetings were organised to inform entrepreneurs personally about the work, to answer questions and to solve any pressure points.

The result for the client

Inconvenience was inevitable, but was limited by optimal coordination with other projects in the area. By building cooperation between all parties and coordinating the project at an early stage, a project was carried out in which the interests of the local stakeholders were taken into account, which helped reduce the number of complaints from local residents significantly. Questions from local residents were answered quickly thanks to the clear arrangements made between the parties during the preparatory phase. The remaining complaints were dealt with swiftly by reacting alertly. We continually kept the client up-to-date by means of periodic reports. All this contributed to the continuity and speed of the project, which gave the client peace of mind.

Why TwynstraGudde?

Our consultants are able to switch between the technical side of major projects and what such projects entail for other parties – the lives of local residents and the entrepreneurs in the city. We know what kind of information we need to collect from the organisation in order to achieve alignment and use this information to gauge the local stakeholders’ interests. We are a reliable partner for all parties involved because we show genuine interest and effectively solve communication problems.