1. FlexiGrow All-electric: ‘YES or NO?’
A case study of future energy infrastructure
Determining how energy infrastructures can grow in the long term in order to become future proof; when is all-electric the best option?
Analyzing the performance of an all-electric neighbourhood in the Netherlands, focusing on energy demand patterns.
Determining energy infrastructure design criteria for future housing developments and renovations.
Creating a model which takes into account energy sustainability, affordability and security of supply.
Simulating electric and gas grid combinations.
Cooperation of Research Centre Energy (Hanze UAS), GasTerra, Enexis and EnerGQ.
Neighbourhood of a recently built village (Figure 1), just outside of Groningen city.
Houses being studied have electric heat pumps and a varying number of solar panels.
Time span of 3 years.
Figure 1 – All-electric houses in the Province of Groningen
Understanding the dependence of electric loads on external factors, such as temperature (Fig 2) and time of day (Fig 3); analyzing the change in synchronicity of electric loads.
Making future proof design criteria for all electric and mixed energy infrastructures with a variety of energy sources.
Figure 4 – Thermal vs. non-thermal energy demand
Continuous monitoring of 10 households and 1 transformer; 10 minute interval base during 3 years.
Modelling domestic energy demand patterns (Fig 4)
Estimating future electric grid design criteria.
Evaluating future energy scenarios in order to determine the optimum energy infrastructure configuration given the neighbourhood characteristics.
Providing a platform for meaningful societal discussion regarding the spatial planning of energy.
Resulting in improvement of the efficiency of domestic energy consumption and reduction of infrastructure investment costs.
Figure 2 – Correlation between low temperatures and electricity demand
Figure 3 – Correlation between time of day and electricity demand
Erika is a teacher and researcher at the Hanze UAS. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the area of energy system design. .
Lech Bialek is a teacher and researcher at the Hanze UASS. He is currently pursuing his Masters degree in Energy & Environmental Sciences.
Current trends & consequences
‘Electrification’; domestic energy configurations are moving towards increasing electricity use, with an all-electric neighbourhood as a living example (Figure 5).
Stress on electric grid; current electric infrastructure is unable to support this electrification due to higher synchronicity in demand.
Criteria for electric grid design are outdated; new criteria are required.
Stakeholders dealing with spatial planning like neighbourhood expansion and retro-fitting need to make long term investment decisions.
Christian van Someren is a researcher at the Hanze UAS and specializes in modeling future energy scenarios.
Figure 5 – Future domestic energy scenario (
Erika Zomerman; Christian van Someren; Lech Bialek