Charging Energy Hubs

Balancing supply and demand

Flexibility is one such system solution and means deploying processes and systems that balance the demand or supply of electricity. On industrial sites, existing or new processes and systems are often relatively easy to link together. Where with the increase in electric trucks, charging infrastructure will be an increasingly important source of flexibility.

The project therefore focuses on the development of Charging Energy Hubs: decentralized (local) energy systems that form the connecting factor between electricity consumers and suppliers. In it, optimization strategies are developed for large-scale solar installations, energy storage systems, charging stations for E-trucks and consumers of renewable energy, among others. For example, electricity produced from solar installations on industrial rooftops can be stored in an energy storage system and used in the event of an electricity shortage. Connecting the processes and systems at industrial sites creates local flexibility that can be deployed when the electricity grid can no longer handle power demand (congestion management). In addition, this flexible capacity can be used for smart trading on energy markets to accelerate a positive business case for investments in E-trucks and charging infrastructure.

The technological innovations are brought together at three (public-private) use-case locations, which serve as pilot and validation environments for an (inter)national rollout and scale-up. The collaboration across the value chain and both the energy and Automotive sectors has not been demonstrated before at this scale and complexity.