Hoog Dalem – a community striving for energy sustainability

Gorinchem, Netherlands Energy Communities, Environment and Resource efficiency, Local social sustainability

“The main driver is self-sustainability, as opposed to monetary gains.”

Description

Hoog Dalem, an all-electric residential area in the Netherlands, is a USEF demonstration project. Its purpose is to test different end user propositions related to PV and batteries. The two main propositions are:
• Sun in my House: surplus generated solar energy is stored in a battery to be used at homes when demand for energy is greater than energy generated.
• Night by Day: batteries are charged during low-tariff hours. The energy stored is used during high tariff hours.

As well as using batteries for in-home optimisation, it is also possible to use them to avoid overloading of the distribution grid. USEF processes are used to achieve this and this paper provides insight into how these work.

Context

Hoog Dalem is a municipal community with high share of RES and a good deal of community spirit. The residents are interested in participating in novel projects and doing actions that contribute and bring value to the community as a whole.

42 households participate in a real life test where in-home-battery systems are combined with solar production, a smart in-home system and USEF. The aim of the test is to maximise the self-consumption of the solar production combined with decreasing the impact of the solar produced electricity on the local electricity grid.

The energy community (EC) is formed by 13 residential houses, 10 producers and 3 consumers, with an average of 160m2 per building and an average consumption of 6MWh/building (electricity). The prosumers have Solar PV installations and Heat Pumps.

The communication with the end-user is done through the DSO.

Actors involved

ABB, Enervalis & Bliq
Energy21
Stedin
i.LECO
End-Users

Why it works

The main challenges have been

– User engagement for participation in community challenges

– Presentation of complex information in an understandable way

Several (online) workshops where we guided residents on how to use the energy dashboard and answered their questions. “These workshops were very useful for us to better understand the users’ pain points and at the same time clarify their concerns”.

Scale

local

https://www.usef.energy/download-the-framework/demonstration-projects/hoog-dalem/

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