Ambitious Change Needed to Ensure Energy Transition: DNV

Companies in the energy sector are beginning to recognize that to ensure a successful energy transition, a more ambitious and impactful change is needed beyond dropping certain fuels and power generation technologies while favoring others. The energy transition needs to consider achievable but significant decarbonization and greening benchmarks applicable to entire supply chains. 

“The 2020s have been called the decade of transformation or the ‘exponential decade,’ where the pace of the energy transition will be set and where food, health and transport systems will change immensely,” says Peter Lovegrove, Media Relations and Video Production Manager at DNV.  

This change will create new demand for services such as DNV’s. Assurance will be essential when certifying the authenticity and effectiveness of decarbonization measures and risk management will play a key role in making sure operations are executed safely. These services will also need to cover the different industry value chain segments to work under the new holistic approach to energy that the transition will require. 

As part of its rebranding and restructuring efforts, DNV will be merging its oil and gas business lines with its other energy business lines to create a new area of operations called DNV Energy Systems. This new division will seek to become a renowned global resource for independent expertise on energy, the energy transition and related certification processes. Ditlev Engel has been named the leader of this new department, which will offer certification, advisory and digital monitoring services to all assets in the energy value chain. “The creation of Energy Systems is our answer to an energy market that changes rapidly as it searches for a deeper decarbonization. We want to enable our clients to get onboard with the energy transition in a quicker manner,” DNV Group President and CEO Remi Eriksen said.  

While this move anticipates the growth of renewable projects in the market, DNV also chooses to continue working with its clients in the oil and gas industry, as the company believes this sector will play an important role in the energy transition, particularly through the supply of natural gas. In fact, DNV believes that natural gas will become the foremost energy source by 2050 at the global level, which will make decarbonization objectives easier to achieve, in part through the management of hydrogen, ammonia and CO2 cycles. 

DNV will be coupling its holistic energy strategy with new acquisitions, including the purchase of American engineering consulting firm Energy and Resource Solutions, Inc. (ERS). The latter’s 80 energy experts will join DNV’s 4,000. “Our strategy not only positions us for significant growth in a world increasingly in need of a trusted voice but also positions us to shape the future of assurance. DNV will offer the best, most efficient and digitalized ways of delivering services, be it classification, certification, verification, inspection, advisory or digital solutions,” said Eriksen.

Eckhard Hinrichsen, Mexico Country Manager of DNV, makes clear that this new strategy is currently being implemented in all of DNV’s Mexico operations, including the combination of DNV’s well established and successful Oil & Gas and Energy units into DNV Energy Systems Mexico: “With this move we will be able to support our clients more integrated and efficiently on their Energy Transition journeys. We continue to offer the complete range of services but will develop those further aligned with our new strategy and the needs of our clients. Most importantly we maintain the same quality and integrity our clients are expecting and have become accustomed to over the last 25 years.”