How Energy Pool are Accelerating Grid Flexibility in the Netherlands

Harnessing flexibility to balance the grid is a critical part of the energy transition, especially in the Netherlands, which already had nearly 24GW of solar PV deployed by the end of 2023.  

The country is also rapidly electrifying its transport and industrial sectors, which is contributing to an already highly congested grid. This combination reflects a broader trend amongst leaders in the energy transition and makes grid balancing flexibility services critical. What’s also interesting is that an increasing quantity of these energy assets are owned by end users and prosumers, meaning that grid balancing services are now being delivered at the distribution level rather than solely by large utility scale generators.

Energy Pool is a specialist in providing flexibility services and managing complex energy systems of business prosumers in the Netherlands. This flexibility is usually from battery storage, but also from CHPs (Combined Heat and Power generators) in greenhouses and flexible loads. As part of accessing their target market of prosumers and business clients, they recognised the need to go beyond being a traditional optimiser. They also provide detailed analysis and education to demonstrate the potential value of flexibility to their clients, no matter where their clients are in their energy transition journey.

“I want to shorten the time from first encounter to delivering benefits to the client as much as possible and reduce the complexity in the commercial phase. This means showing them what their system looks like now, what the system will look like in the future, and how certain investments can help them overcome those challenges and unlock new revenues. And Gridcog’s simulation enables me to do this.”
– Marc Vergroesen Managing Director, Netherlands, Energy Pool

Due to Energy Pool’s clients' assets participating in flexibility markets, Energy Pool uses Gridcog to simulate the complex interactions between assets behind the meter, but also how those assets access historically front of meter balancing markets including aFRR and FCR and wholesale energy markets.

Energy Pool has been using Gridcog’s simulation software to accelerate their growth in the Dutch market. Initially impressed by its user-friendly interface,  which allows them to visually represent real sites and projects, they found the simulation results to be accurate and perfectly aligned with their team's needs, while also helping to educate their customers along the way.

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“Basically, our customers have two questions for us. What are the expected returns when participating with my available capacity in markets? And what do I need in order to overcome my power and energy challenges behind the meter? And both of those objectives are being answered by Gridcog’s simulation software.”
– Marc Vergroesen Managing Director, Netherlands, Energy Pool

Due to the power of Gridcog’s software compared to traditional modelling tools, Energy Pool have been able to accelerate their business model and sales cycle, ultimately leading them to  delivering value for their customers faster.  

“Prior to becoming a Gridcog customer, preparing this analysis took our analysts weeks or even months as it requires a high degree of processing. Now we can perform this analysis in hours, which has been a huge accelerant to our business.” ‍
– Marc Vergroesen Managing Director, Netherlands, Energy Pool

The final thing that the Energy Pool team have enjoyed while working with Gridcog is the team of “Energy Nerds”, in particular their innovative and agile approach to partnering, developing new features and supporting Energy Pool’s users getting up to speed in the software.

We look forward to seeing the Energy Pool team continue to deliver vital flexibility services to prosumer customers in the Netherlands, Europe and beyond!