Telia inks renewable energy deals in Denmark and Estonia

In 2020, Telia reached 100 percent renewable electricity use across its footprint, to power its network infrastructure, data centers and other sites. This was done through Guarantee of Origin certificates, which labels electricity from renewable sources to provide information on the source of the energy. In Sweden, the shift to only renewable electricity took place already in 2007. These steps have constituted important milestones on Telia’s journey to create a climate-neutral value chain by 2030. The shift to renewable electricity has contributed to a 78 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the company’s own operations, compared to 2018.

In Denmark, Telia has entered into an agreement with Better Energy together with other partners, which stipulates that 125 GWh of additional renewable electricity will be supplied to the Danish electricity grid per year. Better Energy will build a new solar cell park, which is expected to be connected to the grid within two to three years. The solar cell park will supply renewable electricity to Telia’s and Telenor’s joint TTN network, covering approximately 75 percent of the network’s power consumption by 2024.

Rainer Deutschmann, Group Chief Operating Officer at Telia Company, says: “To deliver sustainably and support the transition to low carbon societies, Telia is committed to run our networks and business only on renewable electricity. Moving into the PPA space is an important step to achieve that long-term, while providing certainty to both energy producers and us as a buyer.”

In Estonia, Telia and public energy Company Eesti Energia have signed a large-scale renewable electricity agreement, in which the energy company will supply 156 GWh of renewable wind electricity to Telia over five years, starting end of 2022. This volume covers 70 percent of the power needs of Telia’s fixed and mobile network, server rooms, control center and offices.

Telia is also looking at other ways to optimize its energy consumption. On January 27, 2022 , Telia launched a pilot in Sweden with energy storage solution provider Polarium to optimize network energy usage, reduce electricity costs and contribute to a more resilient electricity infrastructure

During 2021, Telia had a total electricity consumption of approximately 1 TWh in its own operations, all markets included. This represents 93 percent of the total purchased energy, while the remaining share is used for heating, cooling, vehicle fuels and backup power. Telia’s strategy to manage its energy consumption, climate impacts and costs consist of several parts, including increasing energy efficiency through new network hardware and power saving features, managing power consumption through decommissioning legacy networks and modernizing sites.

CT Bureau