Marten's challenge: Taking an entire neighbourhood off the grid? Let’s investigate if this is really possible!

'We've known for some time that analytics will play a key role in the world of renewables, but it's not clear at this stage what those algorithms should look like. We are part of a consortium of organisations - the other partners being Enexis, the University of Twente, Enpuls, Endona, Buurkracht and Dr Ten, a manufacturer of sea salt batteries - focused on investigating what it takes for an entire neighbourhood to reduce its conventional energy consumption to zero by switching to solar energy and home batteries.'

In the Veldegge section of the town of Heeten in the Dutch province of Overijssel, a total of 48 homes are currently connected to a single transformer house. ICT's role is the integration of different technologies and the delivery of the EnergyNXT-platform.

'I see this as an excellent opportunity to learn what it really takes to make an entire neighbourhood selfsufficient in terms of energy.'
- Marten van der Laan, Senior Business Consultant

Challenging business case
But the technology is not the only challenge presented by this project: there is also the business case. The Endona energy cooperative played a crucial role in this project: they registered the consortium for the Energy Act Experiments Regulation, which provided a legal framework for generating, distributing and marketing energy in a specific area.

Do you want to learn more? Read our case study!