Reducing demand
The energy transition is a complex system change. To be able to have a sustainable energy system in place by 2050, we need to do more than simply replace fossil fuels with renewable energy generation. The solutions we have in mind go further than creating a new connection or an upgrade in the form of grid expansion and thicker cables. Those solutions include ensuring that we as a society need less energy (for example, by insulating buildings), or acting to achieve a better spread of the demand for energy throughout the day. We help customers make appropriate choices to reduce energy usage. We do this by working with municipalities down to district level to establish which sustainable energy solution and energy carrier are the most efficient and when they will be available. We encourage customers to be energy-conscious and insulate their homes effectively.
Energy-focused urban planning
Energy and energy infrastructure remain scarce. This is mainly due to the limited availability of space and the limited supply of people capable of building the new energy system. Not everything can be done everywhere and not everything can be done at the same time, especially not if we want to keep the cost to society as low as possible. To avoid unnecessary investments, energy infrastructure needs to become an integral part of the economic, social and spatial development and design of the Netherlands. We call this energy-focused urban planning. So we are working with municipalities and public authorities to understand economic and social developments and make infrastructure choices that are appropriate to those considerations. To this end, municipalities have received a proposal from Liander indicating which heat solution would be best for specific districts and when this could be completed. Overall energy vision documents have also been formulated and submitted in all provinces, specifying the choices made regarding economic, energy-related and spatial developments (business parks, for example) and energy carrier choices (where is hydrogen feasible/not feasible, where is district heating infrastructure needed/not needed). Through this information, we provide timely clarity to public authorities, consumers and businesses regarding when and where certain expansions and solutions will be implemented.
BalansWijk
The BalansWijk is a district that explores how to accelerate housing projects despite high usage of the capacity available in the power grid. With the BalansWijk project, we want to contribute to the design of a neighbourhood where the consumption and generation of electricity are balanced. This eliminates the need for grid expansion. Alliander presented an initial proposal for the BalansWijk in July. One essential aspect is that electrical devices such as charging stations and heat pumps must be controllable to avoid demand spikes. A pilot in which an intermediary controls devices based on control signals from the network operator is currently being tested. Although a fully autonomous residential district is still several years away, we are already seeing contractors adopting our design principles to build homes with a lower capacity requirement. This is much needed, as grid congestion increasingly poses a threat to residential construction.
Grid-friendly construction
The increasing demand for electricity presents challenges for the residential housing sector. The province of Utrecht, together with the province of Gelderland, the network companies Stedin, Alliander and Enexis, Netbeheer Nederland, Bouwend Nederland, NEPROM, Techniek Nederland and TKI Urban Energy, has drawn up design principles for grid-friendly buildings. When building new residential homes or functional buildings, this means making sure that attention is given to keeping the total load on the grid as low as possible, that the load is spread evenly throughout the day and that the load is controllable to some degree. The package of design principles includes limiting heat demand, local generation and storage.