Peter - Paul Schouwenberg has a legal and business administration background and currently working as Senior Officier Regulatory Affairs and Project Manager Biobased Economy within Essent. Previously Peter-Paul was Vice-President Biofuels & Development within Essent Trading International SA in Geneva, and for more than 10 years responsible for the sourcing, trading and development of biomass (solids and liquids) on a global scale. Due to his leadership Essent became one of the authorities in the biomass market. He developed furthermore an unique track and trace system (Green Gold Label), which can be used worldwide in the discussions regarding the sustainability of biomass. Furthermore he was one of the initiators of the standard Gafta (trading) contract for Biomass and the introduction of a forward curve for woodpellets. He was also involved in the development of several new (bio)fuels for the production of sustainable green electricity. The most important one, a worldwide primeur, was the development of a fair-trade coffeehuskpellet in Brazil. For this project he received the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America's) Sustainability Award.

As of 2010 Peter - Paul Schouwenberg is within Essent/RWE responsible for the new programme named Biobased Economy.
Peter - Paul Schouwenberg is chairman of the Rotterdam Biomass Commodity Network (RBCN) and BBE Groep within Energie Nederland, Taskleader of the IEA Bioeenergy Trade Task40, Member of the Commission Corbey, Biomass Renewable Business Platform and Agro-Paper-Chemistry-Energy Platform.

Peter - Paul Schouwenberg is furthermore one of the experts, regarding sustainability, in the International Woodpellets Buyers Platform (IWBP) and participates in the roundtable Bioenergy in the Netherlands.

Essent

Profile

Essent is the largest energy company in the Netherlands. Belgium is our second home market. We provide our private and business customers with gas, electricity, heat and energy services. Essent (including its predecessors) has over 90 years experience of generating, trading, transmitting and supplying electricity. We have also been in the business of supplying gas for 150 years.

Essent is the leading producer of sustainable energy in the Netherlands. Essent strives to provide energy using the most affordable, reliable and sustainable means possible. At the same time, Essent continues to seek solutions that are better for people, the environment and society as a whole.

Essent is part of the RWE Group.

Mission and goals

The environment Essent operates in has seen considerable change - and is constantly changing. Besides ever-increasing requirements from critical customers, increasing focus on climate change, the expanding globalisation of the energy market and stiffer competition, developments in technology are advancing at a tremendous pace. As a result, Essent is faced with major challenges, but they are challenges which we are eager to take on by linking them to an important goal for us: to become the best-performing energy company.

Our mission
For Essent to lead the way, through energy.

Our ambition
For Essent to be the best-performing energy company.

Our goals
We have ambitious goals in four areas: customers, technology, sustainability and organisation. These goals define how we can become the best-performing energy company:

* For Essent to give its customers the best level of personal service and the lowest energy bills.

* For Essent to double its production capacity by 2020 compared to 2010.

* For Essent to be the most attractive and successful employer in its sector.

* For Essent to halve its CO2 emissions

Core values

The way in which we will fulfill our mission, ambition and goals is reflected in our 4 core values:

Deliver Essent fulfils its promises. We always finish what we have started. That means having to make choices. Good ideas are turned into concrete actions and results. We work together to achieve our ambitious objectives. We focus as a team on the result to be achieved and call one another to account over the execution of our actions.

Be inventive At Essent, we share our knowledge in a smart and creative way and produce simple, effective solutions through collaboration. We are not afraid to experiment and voice our opinions on proposed improvements and solutions in a critical yet constructive manner.

Be transparent Essent supplies clearly defined products and services. There are no surprises for our customers, stakeholders or employees. We work on specific detailed orders which deliver concrete results. We take responsibility for these results and can be called to account over them. We consider ourselves to be personally responsible for the results we deliver because we are also given the opportunity to take responsibility for our own actions.

Be sympathetic Taking a genuine interest in and listening to each other, our customers and our environment are of central importance at Essent. As employees, we fulfil the promises made by Essent by respecting each other’s expertise, opinions and backgrounds. We are driven in our collaboration to deliver results, without putting ourselves first. In doing so, we demonstrate sympathetic leadership in our work.

Code of Conduct

Integrity is a concept that has been receiving much attention lately. Some recent incidents in several sectors of our society have established a clear-cut picture of what it means to act without integrity. On the other hand, producing a definition of integrity or of acting with integrity is less simple and certainly less unambiguous.

Integrity for Essent means acting within a framework of rules that the company defines for itself, its employees and its business partners. Legislation (and the associated regulations) clearly represents the minimum; Essent also imposes guidelines that go much further than this baseline.

RWE Code of Conduct

For Essent the RWE Code of Conduct is applicable as it is for all Group companies within the RWE Group. One Code of Conduct that creates clarity and expresses our goals and principles. It also encourages every single employee to take responsibility for his or her actions.

History

Essent was born in 1999 from the merger between PNEM/Mega and EDON. These two partners were themselves the result of various mergers. In 2009 Essent became part of the RWE Group.

PNEM/Mega Group

In 1997, the Noord-Brabant PNEM (incorporated in 1914) and Mega Limburg joined forces to form the PNEM/Mega Group. Mega Limburg resulted from the merger in 1992 of PLEM (the energy company for the province of Limburg incorporated in 1909) and Limagas.

EDON Group

The EDON Group came into being following the merger in 1993 between the provincial companies IJsselmij (incorporated as IJsselcentrale in 1911) and EGD (the energy company for the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe). EGD itself arose from the merger in 1967 between PEB Groningen (incorporated in 1913) and NV Maatschappij tot aanleg en exploitatie van laagspanningsnetten (the company responsible for constructing and operating the low-tension networks).

Local and regional energy companies

Over the years, countless municipal energy companies and regional gas companies have become affiliated with the provincial companies, with the separation of distribution and generation of electricity in 1986 accelerating this process.

RWE Supply & Trading Switzerland S.A.

RWE Supply & Trading Switzerland S.A. is a leading international asset-backed merchant energy trading firm. On October 1 2009, Essent N.V. was acquired by RWE AG. As a result, Essent Trading International S.A. changed its name to RWE Supply & Trading Switzerland S.A. on 26 April 2010. On the same day, Essent Energy Trading B.V. changed its name to RWE Supply & Trading Netherlands B.V. Both these entities remain subsidiaries of Essent N.V. for the time being. Looking ahead, we intend to build an integrated business with RWE Supply & Trading GmbH. This strategic step will bring RWE broader market access to a much wider range of opportunities.

Trading’s key activities derive from our upstream and downstream participation in European and global wholesale energy markets. These comprise:

Managing and optimizing a diverse portfolio of generation capacity across Europe

Trading in physical energy-related, logistical and financial contracts

Structuring complex energy products and services; across commodities, markets and segments

Providing of a broad range of energy-related and financial risk management services

Offering insight and in-depth analysis of energy markets based on our extensive research capabilities

Sustainable energy

As a consistent innovator and major player, RWE Supply & Trading Switzerland S.A. has considerable influence in this market. Organizations across the world benefit from our combination of a diverse portfolio, financial know-how and long-term relationships with international renewable energy suppliers.

The following renewable energy products have been developed for the business and consumer markets:

Green Energy
Green Energy has been developed by Essent for the business market. Renewable energy is produced via self-owned capacity or purchased with green certificates.

Green for Gas
‘Green for Gas’ is an innovative carbon offset product offered by Essent. Gold Standard certificates, generated by renewable energy projects in developing countries, are used to offset the CO2 content of natural gas sold to residential and business consumers in the Netherlands .

Green Power
Green Power is generated by Essent from 100% renewable sources and is available at the same price as conventional electricity. In the wholesale market, we are market leaders in biofuel and emissions trading and portfolio management:

Bio-energy
Essent is one of the world's largest consumers of biofuels for power production, importing over 1.06 million tonnes of biofuel from around the world every year. To improve our power generating options, we have converted a number of coal and gas-fired power plants in the Netherlands for co-firing with biofuel. In 2008, Trading generated over 1,730 GWh of energy from solid biofuel, establishing a market leading presence in this field. Our energy inputs include wood pellets and wood chips. Soy hull pellets and peanut husk pellets have been tested and approved for large-scale co-firing. In addition, we are exploring the possible use of agro-residues as a biofuel input.

Emissions
Our Emissions Group sources carbon credits from around the globe and optimizes emissions assets both for our own needs and those of our clients. We have a wide range of projects worldwide and have concluded innovative deals with partners in various industries across the globe. Read more about how we work in the emission markets.

How to reach Essent

General enquiries

If you would like to contact Essent for general enquiries, please call our central switch board at tel. +31-88-8511000.

Head Office ('s-Hertogenbosch)

Willemsplein 4
5211 AK 's-Hertogenbosch
The Netherlands

www.essent.nl and www.essent.eu

Office Geneva

RWE Supply & Trading Switzerland S.A.
Rue des Glacis de Rive 12-14,
1207 Geneva
Phone +41 (0)22 918 3000