Why Utilities and Distribution Grid Operators Are Tapping Storage to Bolster Grid Resilience

Alexander Savelkoul has a front row seat to the global energy transition.

 

Savelkoul is manager, flexibility, at Netherlands-based Enpuls, an affiliate of Enexis, a Dutch distribution grid operator. Enpuls serves as a hybrid think tank, laboratory and business model incubator, within Enexis Group. In the field of energy flexibility, Enpuls is able to help Enexis ensure grid reliability as increasing amounts of solar and other distributed energy resources are added to its power system.

 

“Enpuls doesn’t have any commercial goals. We have public interest goals and we are there to support the energy transition,” said Savelkoul. To do that, Savelkoul and his colleagues look for scalable technologies and business models that can provide flexibility and resilience to the extremely reliable Dutch distribution grid. “The energy flexibility market is new and it’s becoming more important but the concepts are still in their infancy and we see our role as helping these parties with data or expertise or sometimes financial support to accelerate their development,” he said.

 

Energy storage has recently become a key area of focus for Enpuls. It has emerged as a technology with the potential to improve the process of transitioning the power system from one dominated by large power plants burning fossil fuels to one that features large amounts of generation from intermittent renewable sources.

 

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