On Thursday 25 November, Energy Cooperative Schiphol Trade Park and network operator Liander signed a balancing agreement for a joint pilot for an innovative and sustainable solution to the grid capacity problem at Schiphol Trade Park, a development of the Schiphol Area Development Company (SADC). This confirms the letter of intent of April 2021.
Energy cooperative Schiphol Trade Park is a collective of SADC, established companies, and companies that are now working on their new construction at Schiphol Trade Park. In close collaboration with Liander and technology company Spectral, they have developed a sustainable and innovative concept of collective energy supply at Schiphol Trade Park. With this concept, SADC invests in knowledge and technology for the future and also creates a solution for the shortage of electricity transport capacity at Schiphol Trade Park.
The transition to a sustainable, reliable, and affordable local energy system requires a collective sustainable ambition from the companies. The companies at Schiphol Trade Park have taken the first step in this by setting up the cooperative.
Arnoud van der Wijk, project manager SADC: “That requires vision, trust, and intensive cooperation. The capacity in the power grid is by no means always fully utilized. This means that there is ‘free space’ for all companies at Schiphol Trade Park to use at times of underutilization. This solution makes sure that the scarce grid capacity is shared in an efficient and innovative way.”
The high demand for electricity in the Netherlands leads to bottlenecks on the electricity grid in various places. The time required to expand the electricity grid often does not correspond to, for example, the realization of a business park.
Huibert Baud, Director of Customer & Design at Liander: “We do everything we can to provide our customers with energy on time. In its collaboration with Energy Cooperative Schiphol Trade Park, Liander is investigating new ways to find more space on the existing network together with other parties.” At the same time, Liander is working hard to expand the electricity grid so that the required capacity is available in the future.
Parties with as well as those without power capacity are brought together in a virtual network (a software-controlled system over the existing network) and share the capacity there with each other. Only during peak times is the available grid capacity supplemented with (solar) energy from batteries, and if there really is no other option, with gas generators.
The combination of, among other things, real-time measurements, smart control, and peak generation facilities makes maximum use of the available grid capacity. Technology company Spectral has developed the software for this concept.
Philip Gladek, CEO of Spectral: “Based on our holistic vision of energy transition, we always look for the most impactful integrated system solution. This integrality is necessary to be able to tackle these kinds of complex technological challenges. The great thing about this solution at Schiphol Trade Park is that the entire electricity chain, from the substation to behind the meter at the connected companies, can be optimized in real-time. We hope to introduce a future-proof and scalable solution to cope with the increasing congestion challenge and to make room for local sustainable energy.”
The established companies are currently being connected to the balancing platform of Energy Cooperative Schiphol Trade Park. The first company without transmission capacity will be connected in the first quarter of 2022.
