Energy Storage Action Plan handed over to outgoing minister Sophie Hermans
Today, industry association Energy Storage NL handed over the National Energy Storage Action Plan to outgoing Minister of Climate and Green Growth Sophie Hermans. Energy storage plays a crucial role in achieving independent, reliable and affordable energy for industry, the built environment and the entire energy system. The action plan contains recommendations from the storage sector to accelerate the deployment of energy storage in the Netherlands.
Working visit to ENGIE battery farm
The handover took place during a working visit organized by Energy Storage NL at ENGIE's Maxima power plant. Here ENGIE is working on the final phase of the construction of a large-scale battery park. These batteries will reduce the running hours of the existing gas power plant, leading to CO2 reduction without jeopardizing the stability or affordability of energy.
Harry Talen, CEO ENGIE Energie Nederland: ‘’From a European perspective, the Dutch electricity grid has the greatest need for large-scale batteries, yet we see that developments in other countries are moving faster, partly due to the complexity of connections and tariffs in the Netherlands. The realization of this project in hybrid form at the Maxima power plant behind an existing connection is a nice first step for ENGIE. We would like to develop more and larger projects to offer additional flexibility to our customers.’’
Sustainable, affordable and stable energy through energy storage
ENGIE's battery farm is a great example of the social added value of energy storage, according to Maarten van den Heuvel, chairman of Energy Storage NL: “Batteries, heat buffers and molecule storage increase the stability of a renewable energy system. They can contribute to a solution for grid congestion and monitor security of supply.”
The benefits of energy storage extend further: “Industry struggles with high energy prices. Storage stabilizes energy prices, preventing high price spikes. Good for the wallet as well as for the sustainability plans and business location climate.” Energy storage is also essential in the built environment. “Storage makes it possible to match own generation and own consumption. This reduces the peak electricity demand from residential areas towards grid operators and reduces the threat of grid congestion. In this way, the connection of new residential neighborhoods becomes possible faster and we can get our housing task within reach again.”
National Energy Storage Action Plan
The Action Plan presented today states that more direction on energy storage is necessary to take full advantage of the opportunities. Van den Heuvel: “Many major challenges in the energy transition are the result of poor coupling of energy demand and supply. This requires flexibility and thus energy storage. This is why we need to focus more on an energy system in which storage has a fundamental place alongside generation, consumption and transport.
This can be done by setting a clear storage ambition for 2030 and 2050 in government policy. We can realize this ambition with a programmatic approach, aligning financing, connection conditions and permits. Ultimately, this should be laid down in a sector agreement, in which government, grid operators and the storage market are jointly responsible for implementation.”
Minister Hermans: getting started on energy storage policy agenda
Sophie Hermans (outgoing Minister of Climate and Green Growth): “Energy storage is becoming increasingly important as we produce and use more renewable energy. Batteries can also play an important role in relieving the burden on the power grid. But there are still a number of bottlenecks to solve. That is why I welcome the industry's action plan with suggestions on how this could be done. We will work with grid operators and the sector on this with a policy agenda for energy storage.”
