Congress Charging Infrastructure Netherlands

‘Bi-directional charging can help solve grid congestion’

Published on 23-05-2025 at 08:33

Met 379 bezoekers vestigde Congres Laadinfra Nederland een record.

Congress Laadinfra Nederland celebrated its first lustrum this year and did so with a record number of visitors. Just under four hundred participants pondered the future of electric charging, the possibilities for the future, and innovations in the sector.

It was television presenter and journalist Rick Nieman who set the tone as chairman of the day, kicking off with important questions: where are we in the development of charging infrastructure, what challenges lie ahead and what opportunities does the energy transition offer? All questions that the participants would discuss today, but first a few speakers went into more detail on the state of affairs.

For example, Rein Jüriado of the European Commission gave an update on the EV market in Europe. 2024 had not been the strongest year for electric driving, he indicated, but also that growth is already visible in early 2025. “There are now around 11 million plug-in vehicles in Europe, of which 5.9 million are fully electric and 4.3 million are plug-in hybrids. There are also around 4,500 hydrogen vehicles operating.” Jüriado stressed that consumers increasingly recognise the benefits of electric driving – such as lower running costs and climate friendliness – but that high purchase prices and the lack of private and public charging points are still barriers.

Rapid growth of the charging sector

Lucie Mattera, secretary general of ChargeUp Europe, presented the latest edition of the State of the Industry report, which focuses on the rapid growth of the European charging sector. The report shows that the share of EVs in the total vehicle fleet is currently four per cent, and is expected to rise to 30 per cent by 2035. Mattera: “The charging infrastructure is also growing rapidly. The number of public charging points is increasing by around 40 per cent annually, partly due to the rise of fast charging points. Still, the majority of charging points remain private (more than 92 per cent), with an expected growth to 37 million by 2035.”

Mattera also pointed to the sector’s strong economic impact. The market value rose from €2.4 billion in 2019 to €15.3 billion in 2024 and now supports 54 thousand jobs. By 2035, this could reach 94 billion euros, comparable to Luxembourg’s GDP. “The EV charging sector makes an important contribution to the European economy,” Mattera said.

Grid congestion

While the charging sector seems to be doing well, there are also a number of challenges that came up regularly during the congress, such as price transparency, cybersecurity and grid congestion. “In two years, the Dutch energy market has completely changed,” says Robin Berg of We Drive Solar. “In 2022, there were only 34 hours in which solar and wind energy production exceeded demand. In 2024, that rose to 924 hours. The whole of the Netherlands is affected, but the province of Utrecht in particular is in dire straits. Within now and two years, it will probably not be possible to add any new grid connections, which could bring housing construction, for instance, to a standstill. We are now working on bidirectional charging – that could contribute substantially to solving grid congestion.”

Eric van Voorden of Vereniging DOET also sees that grid operators are urgently looking for solutions to prevent grid congestion as much as possible. “After all, some 195 billion euros will be needed in the coming years to keep the power grid working properly, as electricity consumption in the Netherlands will quadruple towards 2050. Since 2019, the NAL (National Agenda Charging Infrastructure), among others, has been working on this task. “Their ambition is to have more than 60 per cent of charging sessions of electric cars and vans in the private and public sector smart charging by the end of 2025.”

One party already working on this is MRA-Electric (MRA-E). This is a partnership of governments in North Holland, Flevoland and Utrecht. Nanet Rutten of MRA-E indicated that the company has successfully implemented smart charging, making it now the standard at some 4,000 public charging points – with expansion to 12,000 by the end of 2025. The next step should be the introduction of dynamic pricing, where charging is cheaper outside peak hours and charging capacity is automatically reduced during busy times. Electric drivers can also temporarily pause charging at higher rates, then automatically resume when prices fall. According to Rutten, these steps contribute to a smarter and more affordable charging network that benefits both users and grid operators.

From quantity to quality

In short: as electric driving matures, the world of charging is changing. “We are moving from quantity – putting up charging stations, conquering locations – to quality,” stated Johan van Kooten of Ampeco. “From now on, it’s about making a profit, and you can do that by improving your operational efficiency and betting on customer experience that keeps your users coming back.”

With every charge point operator planning to significantly increase its number of charge points over the next five years, your profitability must also keep pace, it sounded. Because your costs will also explode, and you will only make a profit if you can contain them. “There are ways to do that,” he said. “For a start, you can automate your processes, but also optimise your network operationally. That is, you start predicting when maintenance is needed, before something breaks down, and also use remote self-healing algorithms that detect defects and provide remote repair.”

Unclear costs

And then there is one more thing. Because in addition to those clearly understandable costs, you also have the cost of your charge point management system (CPMS); the software that manages the whole mess. “These all have their own cost structure, with both one-off costs and an entry fee or third-party integration fee, but equally fixed and variable monthly costs according to usage, number of charge points, and so on. Most difficult of all with that are the transaction costs, which can fluctuate very hard based on usage.”

It’s hard to compare those, it sounds; and so it’s not obvious to correctly calculate the total cost of your charging infrastructure. “And there is no perfect CPMS model either, each has its peculiarities, and it’s up to you to understand the impact on your long-term costs, and make sure they scale just faster as the rest of your ambitions grow.”

From depot to loading hub

Ultimately, the occupancy rate of your charging station fleet is one of the most important elements of CPO management, says van Kooten. “And so it is important to ask yourself how to get more people to your site, to differentiate yourself from your nearby competitors. For that, the various Ampeco solutions, from a platform full of white label components, to customised, specific solutions. For instance, we can also integrate already existing customer tools into our apps via api’s. I am thinking, for example, of a loyalty programme to give frequent users benefits.”

Christopher Thompson of ABB E-mobility also pushed his company’s services in the context of this shift, especially those for the e-truck market. “Because that is where the future of electric mobility is now, but then you need smart EV infrastructure that is easily configurable and scalable, and economically viable over their lifetime. In short; infrastructure now needs to see profitability as a priority.” And he explained how carriers need to turn their depots into charging hubs,

Location, location, location

“Location, location, location”, they like to say in the real estate sector, and that way of looking at things actually counts in the charging sector too, thought Till Schlief of ChargePlanner, a platform that makes sure you don’t place a charging station blindly, but based on data. “It not only ensures that you end up in better places, but also that you know better what is needed at that location.”

How that happens? With smart data and artificial intelligence. “The amount of cars or trucks passing in a particular spot already gives a very big indication. But besides that, you also need to know what those cars are doing there locally. Do they stay for less than half an hour? Somewhere between half an hour and two hours? Or do they stay there for more than two hours? That determines what your stay-and-charge potential is.”

“But that’s not enough,” he continued. “On top of that, you also get insight into competing sites and their pricing, as well as your distance to the electricity grid and what it costs you to connect; all those elements also determine your potential profitability.” Because, yep, a price that reflects your location is the real key to maximising your profitability as much as possible. And to prove it, he cites a comparison from Germany, where a charging station close to a motorway is almost played off the field by a hub just a little further away, just by offering much lower kWh price. You can hear him thinking “quod erat demonstrandum”, but he doesn’t even need to say that. The numbers speak for themselves.

Innovation Award

At the end of the day, it turned out that bi-directional charging did have the future, as it was We Drive Solar that won the Charging Innovation Award with its bi-directional AC charger. Serpentines went up in the air, the glowing representative received the glass trophy from Nieman’s hands. 397 spectators saw desire for innovation crowned and went home with new insights.

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This article was automatically translated from the Dutch language original to English (British).

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