Information
The ascent of wind, solar and hydraulic power and the breakthrough in electric car travel present us with a major challenge for the future. We will increasingly see substantial differences between the supply of and the demand for energy. With the development and implementation of smart grids, Imtech is already anticipating this change in the energy sector.
Smart grids utilise intelligent technology to effectively coordinate the supply of and demand for energy by suppliers and companies or consumers. This cuts down on peak usage levels, allowing for considerable reductions in the production capacity. This can be achieved by storing surpluses of locally generated power and using these surpluses at moments when this energy is required. Imtech is already a specialist in this area. All knowledge and expertise relating to smart grids is shared and bundled in our think tank – known officially as the Imtech Taskforce Smart Grids. At the same time, the market can also turn to this think tank with questions and (technical) challenges that demand an answer.
That this bundling of knowledge is effective has been proven in practice. For a car park in the Dutch municipality of Zaanstad, Imtech supplied the technology for a total of 60 smart connection points (Park & Recharge©, developed by the Imtech parking technology specialist WPS) for the recharging of electric cars. However, if these are all used at the same time, the main power point for electricity cannot handle the demand. In response, we devised a clever application, in the form of a local smart grid that not only optimally distributes the demand for electricity, but also signals a number of charging stations to temporarily stop drawing electricity in the event of a threatening peak in demand. This allows the operator to maintain control over the energy issue.
We are happy to answer any questions you may have regarding smart grids, so be sure to ‘act smart’ and send me an e-mail.
Bart Theunissen
President of the Imtech Taskforce Smart Grids
bart.theunissen@imtech.nl
