Twenty six partners of the Smart Energy Collective have signed a renewed co-operation agreement for the approval of the second phase of its smart grid initiative, which involves the development of five large-scale smart grid demonstration projects in the Netherlands. The signing follows a successful preparation period, and marks the start of the actual design phase of the five trial test sites.
The projects will be implemented at Schiphol airport, in a few offices of ABB and Siemens, and in residential districts in Gorinchem, Heerhugowaard, and Goes. Intelligent energy systems, also known as smart grids, are essential for the realization of an affordable and reliable sustainable energy supply. At the same time, the Smart Energy Collective wants to offer an important contribution to the standardization that this new field requires.
The Smart Energy Collective is one of the largest sector-transcending initiative in Europe for the concrete development of smart grids and services. Current participants in the project (in alphabetical order) are: ABB, Alliander, APX Endex, BAM, DELTA, DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability, Efficient Home Energy, Eaton, Eneco, Enexis, Essent, GEN, Gemalto, Heijmans, IBM, ICT Automatisering, Imtech, KPN, Nedap, NXP Semiconductors, Philips, Priva, Siemens, Smart Dutch, Stedin and TenneT.
Pier Nabuurs, chairman of the Smart Energy Collective Steering Committee, comments: “We all know that we are globally evolving towards an energy system in which the share of sustainable energy will be many times higher, and in which electricity generation will be far more decentralized than it currently is. In addition, the demand for electricity will rise, in part due to the increase in prosperity—especially in countries with high economic growth, such as China and India—and the shift in fuel consumption; for example, due to the further introduction of electric vehicles and heat pumps. In order to make this possible, an intelligent energy system is required that uses a combination of innovative technologies and services, and in which the consumer is central. This will enable us to keep the costs of our energy supply at a reasonable level with a comparably high level of reliability. It is without question a milestone that we have taken the next step in the realization of this new energy system with this large group of renowned players.”
Based on the implementation of five demonstration projects involving different user groups—industry, offices, existing residential districts, and newly developed districts—the Smart Energy Collective wants to test the smart grids in actual practice, as well as to provide an important impulse to standardization. During a survey conducted during the first phase, it was evident that there are more than 6,000 relevant standards that play a role in the new technologies, which will be introduced to the market over the coming years.
Finally, the objective is to create a common market for energy services that is of a sufficiently large scale. Working groups have been established for standardization, market mechanisms, services and business cases, smart grids, privacy and security, and ICT infrastructure, in order to establish a solid foundation for the design of the five demonstration projects, as well as for future projects.