Mobility
Electric transport is growing fast. In 2019, we installed 4,961 regular charging points and 91 fast chargers for electric cars. We expect these numbers to increase further in the coming years. By 2025, 1 million electric vehicles (cars, lorries and buses) are expected to be in use in the Netherlands, and around 2 million by 2030. In October 2019, the 500th electric bus was taken into service and 10% of all buses are now battery-powered. Bus companies must have switched to zero emissions before 2030.
Growth number of regular charging points
Growth fast charging points
ElaadNL celebrates 10th anniversary
Together with the other Dutch grid managers, Stedin is an affiliated organisation of ElaadNL: the knowledge and innovation centre in the field of smart charging infra- structure for electric cars in the Netherlands. Several of our employees have been seconded to ElaadNL, where they work on providing a joint answer to the question of how we can charge millions of electric cars effortlessly and sustainably in the future within the constraints of the grid. The centre celebrated its 10th anniversary in September: a milestone.
Zero-emission bus transport closer to realisation
The number of electric buses in public transport is rapidly increasing. The 500th electric bus took to the road in October 2019, easily breaking the 10% mark for the total fleet. Their number is growing in Stedin's service area as well. In 2019, 37 electric buses were added in Dordrecht, 23 in Zoetermeer and the same number in Delft, while RET and Utrecht each added a further 55 electric buses to their fleet at the end of the year, for example. This growth presents the grid managers with a set of particular challenges. As a result, ElaadNL is strongly in favour of getting grid managers around the table as early as possible, even before the invitation to tender is issued. A better approach is being developed together with contracting authorities, which has a major focus on the timely connection and efficient utilisation of electricity grids. With three quarters of all the buses in public transport expected to be electric by 2025, the urgency is great. Several important topics are therefore set to be addressed in 2020, including the National Agenda on the Charging Infrastructure Network and the energy supply around public transport hubs.
Transition together/Innovation:
Smart Solar Charging
A sustainable energy system at the district level: as part of the Stedin innovation project 'Smart Solar Charging', we store locally generated solar energy in shared or other cars using a smart, dynamic fast-charging and storage system (Vehicle2Grid). The car then becomes part of the energy system. This process creates flexible storage capacity that helps to reduce peaks on the electricity grid. The locally generated energy is released to the district at a later moment, when the demand and price are both high. This system is also known as 'bidirectional'.
2019 was a year of scaling up. On 21 March 2019, King Willem-Alexander unveiled the world première of this sustainable energy and mobility system in the test bed within the Utrecht residential district of Lombok. In addition, Triodos Bank is currently building the world's largest bidirectional charging square in Zeist. The municipality of Utrecht also worked on the development of a bidirectional city network comprising 145 roadside charging stations.
National Agenda on the Charging Infrastructure Network
The National Agenda on the Charging Infrastructure Network lends visibility to the challenge that we face: to install 1.8 million charging points by 2030. At the moment, there are approximately 50,000 charging points in the Netherlands. The National Agenda focuses on a regional approach. Stedin is set to be an important partner in drawing up the regional plans in our coverage area. As a result, achieving a balanced load of the energy network is always taken into account. The National Agenda specifically includes a passage on the roll-out of private charging infrastructure. This point follows the basic principle that unambiguous agreements need to be made on precisely how semi-public and private charging infrastructure (for instance, on business parks and in multi-storey car parks) contribute to the public charging requirement.
Local smart grid at grounds of ADO Den Haag football club
Stedin and Scholt Energy have jointly realised a local smart grid at the stadium of ADO Den Haag football club. The stadium has an unusual grid load pattern, with a significant peak on match days alternated with a relatively low load between home games. In addition, the stadium has a sizeable solar roof capable of generating 700 kWp on sunny summer days, which can result in a significant peak. It also has 30 charging points for electric cars, which the municipality of The Hague prefers to power with the solar energy that is generated.
Scholt Energy installed a battery with a capacity of more than 750 kWh at the stadium, supplied by Alfen. Alfen also provided the smart grid technology and is in smart control of the charge stations. While the battery is used to help power the stadium on match days, it is used by Scholt for commercial purposes on other days. Stedin tracks the energy flows using a sophisticated measuring system. In this way, we make transparent how the varying interests of different stakeholders at an event location translate to grid load.
Growth of number of charging stations in our area
In 2019 Stedin Group has a 39% national share in the number of public and semi-public charging stations and a 30% national share in the number of fast chargers.
