Renewable energy sources are key enablers in the endeavor to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the anthropogenic global warming. The intermittent behaviour of renewable energy sources and their limited storage capabilities present new challenges to power system operators in the maintenance of power quality and reliability. However, the increased availability of advanced automation and communication technologies has also provided new intelligent solutions to meet these challenges.

Distribution Automation (DA) mainly with the aim to reduce CML by MV FLISR* is not new and is deployed by many DNO's** on primary- and strategic secundary substations (e.g. NOP's***). In many cases the final situation of this kind of DA is that it will be installed in 10% of the substations. This means that 90% of the substations will stay passive/dumb. This is where DA-Li comes in because the benefits drop and the amount of substations increases there is a need for disruptive innovation.

* Coupling the charging of electric vehicles to locally produced energy (wind, solar, biomass) * Giving consumers insights in the (current) local energy mix at all charge points in The Netherlands * Giving consumers the opportunity to choose the type of energy they want to use charging their vehicle * Doing all this using open and standardized communication protocols: OSCP, OCPI, OCPP (see also www.openchargealliance.org, www.smartcharging.org)

In the pilot project 'smart charging, the approach of Brabant', Enexis and the Provence of Noord-Brabant are developing innovative, affordable and smart charge points together with municipalityes, research institutes and market parties. Between 2014 and 2017 600 public charge points are placed. A lot of technical and proces improvements have been applied to lower the cost of these chargepoint (both CAPEX and OPEX).

First large smart charging EV pilot on an office location. The pilot aims at charging electic vehicles in a manner that the total power consumption of the offices and EVs do not exceed the local capacity. thus: if buildings start using more power, EVs will use less.

The electricity networks of the future will look different. An increase in locally generated energy and electric transport requires a more intelligent and flexible network, called a smart grid. The required technology exists, but is very expensive. The project “Cost Reduction MV/LV Instrumentation” (KRIS) seeks to reduce the costs by creating an open standard for this kind of instrumentation in secondary substations (MV/LV). Unique feature is that network operators, industrial partners and research institution in this co-creation picking together with each other.

The goal of the Smart Planning project is to gain insight in de value of Smart Grids for an effective development of smart grids in the Netherlands. The goal is that all connected parties, such as customers, suppliers, and network operators effectively use the network capacity and flexibility.

TRANSFORM provides insight into smart city processes and methodologies for cities how to arrive at smart energy plans and executable projects, based upon stakeholder co-creation. This done by developing methods, sharing best practices, sharing visions, sharing solutions and breaking down barriers that block initiatives in order to reach these extensive and ambitious targets. TRANSFORM goes further than only ambitions and aims, and will define actions to be taken in the TRANSFORM cities and other cities within Europe to reach climate goals.