Grid congestion limits the space to build and expand. By including energy security from the first design phase, buildings and campuses become less dependent on available grid capacity.
Grid congestion is changing the rules of the game for new construction and expansion. Previously, sufficient electrical power was a matter of course, but additional grid capacity can now take years. For building owners and developers, waiting is often not an option. While new locations and additional production capacity enable growth, critical processes depend on a reliable energy supply.
Energy security is therefore not just about available grid capacity. Redundancy is also essential for critical processes: how much certainty is needed if the regular energy supply fails? At the same time, there is a growing need to reduce dependence on fuels. The solution therefore lies not in a return to fossil emergency supplies, but in designing an energy supply that is reliable and future-proof.
A developer has little influence on the national electricity grid, but other possibilities exist within your own building or campus. In this way, energy can be generated, stored and used smartly, locally. This makes energy security a design choice. By combining lower energy demand, local generation, storage and smart control from the first design phase, there is more control over the energy supply.
Deerns combines in-depth technical knowledge of MEP installations, building physics, energy and energy management systems (EMS) with knowledge of the customer’s processes, for an integrated energy concept.
Reduce energy consumption
Reducing energy consumption is at least as important as local generation and storage. Every kilowatt hour that is not needed does not need to be generated or stored.
3 ways to reduce energy consumption:
- The building: the building envelope, orientation and insulation values largely determine the basic demand
- The building installations: design ventilation, cooling and heating as energy-efficiently as possible
- The user equipment: from kitchen equipment in offices to production facilities in the pharmaceutical industry
User equipment is gaining more prominence when tackling resource efficiency. This requires collaboration with users and suppliers to map out the processes and identify opportunities.
Generating and storing energy locally
Local energy generation makes a building or campus less dependent on the capacity available from the grid at that time.
Depending on the location and energy demand, different sources are possible:
- Solar panels: integrated in, on or next to the building and often the most obvious form of local generation;
- Biogas generators: as a complement to solar energy;
- Hydrogen: a future scenario in which surplus renewable energy is converted, stored and reused later.
In addition, batteries can store energy and shift consumption to periods when more grid capacity is available. This is becoming increasingly relevant as new contract structures emerge that limit the amount of power that can be purchased or drawn from the grid at different times.
Flexibility also plays an important role. Modular and movable systems provide temporary extra capacity and can be moved or adapted later. In this way, the energy supply continues to evolve with changing circumstances.
Measuring as the basis for smart control
To use energy in a smarter way, you first need insight into where and when it is consumed. Monitoring makes it clear when capacity is available, where peaks occur and what consumption can be shifted. Based on this, an energy management system can focus on generation, storage and offtake.
Due to the growing number of measuring points, the amount of data is also increasing. Automation and AI can help to analyse this data faster and control systems more efficiently. Technical knowledge remains essential: the data must be interpreted correctly and optimisation must never be at the expense of user security or the continuity of critical processes.
Energy security in practice: Defence
For the Central Government Real Estate Agency in the Netherlands (RVB), Deerns investigated how fossil-free energy security can be developed for different types of defence locations. In addition to available capacity, redundancy, space and modularity also played an important role.
Space is scarce in inner-city locations. Here, the solution is sought in a compact energy concept in which low energy demand, solar panels, local generation and smart control come together. Out-of-town locations and campuses offer more space. Energy can be organised at the area level, for example via a flexible medium-voltage grid to which several buildings, battery systems and centrally located solar fields are connected.
This extra space also makes other forms of energy storage possible. For example, alternatives to lithium batteries can be interesting when long-term storage is the main focus. These energy concepts are providing a basis for further developments at the RVB.
Investing with an eye on the entire lifespan
These kinds of practical examples show that the lowest investment at the beginning is not automatically the most advantageous choice in the long term. Systems with a higher initial investment, such as all-electric installations, solar panels and batteries, can actually pay off in lower energy and maintenance costs during operation.
Deerns provides insight into this with an analysis of the life cycle costs. Investments, energy consumption and maintenance are weighed against each other over, for example, 10, 20 or 30 years. In this way, Deerns enables clients to make well-informed decisions at the outset.
Designing for the energy challenge of tomorrow
Future-proof energy concepts require foresight. By including technological developments, changing legislation and market developments from the first design phase, Deerns provides insight into which solutions will remain relevant in the longer term. This creates an energy concept that can evolve with changing circumstances and future needs.
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