Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

The Netherlands ready for large scale EV and Microgrid roll-out

In 2013 the Netherlands saw a 400% growth of electric vehicles. Now with over 35.000 EV’s the industry has grown out of its infantile stages. An EV has become a normal sighting, especially in dense urban area’s, like Amsterdam and Rotterdam. As an international EV leader eyes are on the Netherlands, so how did we become such a frontrunner?

Well for one Dutch demographics are ideal for electric vehicles. The Netherlands is highly urbanized and 90% of the cars drive less than 40 miles per day. Education, welfare and technology adoption rates are high. Secondly, our government took a progressive approach to kick-start the industry. This was done by fiscal stimulus and by breaking the EV charger deadlock. Other contributing factors are the abscence of a national car-manufacturer. So the Netherlands was destined to become the international testground for OEM’s. The Nissan Leaf, the Opel Ampera/Chevy Volt, BMWi3 and Tesla Model S, among others all had their global or European launch in the Netherlands.

However the premier reason is that the Netherlands from the outset had an open-model for EV charging in mind. In the Netherlands there are 13 competing companies that provide charging services for EV drivers, and they allow each other on their respective car chargers. doing this we created trust for the early EV driver. EV charger companies need to compete on service, rather than charge locations. The US Governors mandate to have 3.3 million zero-emmision vehicles on the road by 2025 want to use the same model. An excellent opportunity for international cooperation.

In the last 6 months the EV landscape changed, from an abundance of chargers, we now have a shortage. And as scarcity creates demand, the market grows and enters a new stage. In the city of Arnhem, you have to pay extra when you are connected to an EV charger, but are not using it. Smart charging moves beyond the pilotfase as certain companies now have more than 15 EV’s in their parking lot. In the Netherlands we now not only perceive the EV as part of the microgrid, because of its scale, it now is a component that impacts the grid.

In stark contrast to the American grid, the Dutch grid is very robust. On average we only have 25 minutes downtime per end-user per year (which leads the European scorelist). However, we also face increasing grid tensions and look at the smart and microgrid as the cheapest method for a secure and resilient grid. By 2020, we will realize 500.000 fully connected smart homes. This international showcase will cooperate with other showcases in Europe, Asia and the US.

During New York Energy Week, the Dutch organized events will focus on applicable solutions for the US market. We do this in close cooperation with our US/Texan partners and try to build partnerships that can collectively stimulate the US EV and microgrid market.