With our innovation strategy, we are taking on the challenges that Enexis is facing. We are setting priorities and taking into account the constantly changing context. In this manner, we are staying on track to also have a reliable and accessible energy system in the future. In 2023, the focus was on the following topics.
Green gas booster
Green gas is being fed into the regional transmission gird in many places. This takes place under low pressure. Consequently, only households and businesses in the vicinity can use this gas. The demand for gas is low in the summer so there is a surplus of green gas. We want to pump this gas into the national gas grid. This is possible under high pressure via a green gas booster - a compressor. In this manner, all of the green gas can be used and producers have the certainty that they can deliver green gas throughout the year. Major steps were set in 2023 in the development of the first booster in Wijster.
Hydrogen District WaterstofWijk Wagenborgen
33 houses in the village Wagenborgen in Groningen wanted to go natural-gas free by making use of hydrogen and other alternatives. The houses, dating from the 1970s, were equipped with a hybrid heat pump and a hydrogen boiler to heat the house. Enexis led this project. We made the existing gas pipelines suitable for hydrogen and connected the houses to the hydrogen grid. The first homes were connected to the hydrogen grid in 2023. In this project, we were able to learn in practice what is involved in the distribution of hydrogen in existing natural gas grids. We also wanted to demonstrate that hydrogen, in combination with home insulation and a hybrid heat pump, is a good alternative for natural gas.
ZonBalans [Solar Balance]
How can we make more efficient use of the electricity grid? One of the possible solutions is ZonBalans [Solar Balance]. In this initiative, large-volume business customers only feed solar energy back into the grid when there is sufficient grid capacity. If the sun intensity is 50% or less, these customers can feed energy back into the grid. Feeding back into the grid is partially switched off above this percentage. With ZonBalans, customers can still feed back up to 70% of their unused generated solar energy on an annual basis.
Grid-aware charging
The demand for charging stations for electric vehicles is growing strongly. We expect that we will have connected over 480,000 charging stations at peoples’ homes in 2030 and over 140,000 public charging stations. All these charging stations take up grid capacity when vehicles are being charged. Grid-aware charging is a way to reduce the necessary grid capacity of charging stations, as you charge your vehicle at times that there is a lot of grid capacity, for example, at night when a lot of solar energy is being generated locally. Grid-aware charging is a standard item in contracts with municipalities for public charging stations. A grid-aware charging pilot is being run in Noord-Brabant.
Mijnwater Project in Limburg
Enexis is active in heating infrastructure via its subsidiary Enpuls. Enpuls is gaining experience via the participation in concrete heating projects, such as Mijnwater in Parkstad Limburg. In this project, old mine shafts are used for sustainable heating and cooling of homes and other buildings. Enexis (almost € 80 million) and the Province Limburg (€ 40 million) decided to invest further in Mijnwater phase 1 in 2023, so that Mijnwater can continue to grow and become a profitable and sustainable district heating grid. Mijnwater is being executed in three phases. At present, we are in phase 1 in which the heating infrastructure is being realised in Heerlen, followed by Kerkrade-West (phase 2) and Kerkrade-Centre (phase 3). Large-volume business consumers and low-volume consumers with energy-efficient homes are connected to the heating grid first. The concrete goal is that there is a district heating grid in 2023 with a capacity that equals the heat consumption of 16,000 homes and the cooling of 26,500 homes. In addition, through this project, we are learning how heat can be used in the energy system of the future.