renewable energy in zaanstad: from theory to practice - e-harbours

Since Zaanstad is planning to invest in solar and wind energy on a large scale; it is interesting to
review a couple of scenarios.
Currently, Zaanstad pays an average of 0.07812 €/kWh for buying electricity 7 . For the first 5000 kWh
Zaanstad delivers back to the grid, Zaanstad receives the same price from the energy company,
Nuon. So this can be equalized. If Zaanstad delivers more electricity back to grid – in this case an
estimation of 10.000 kWh – Zaanstad receives actually 0.0588 €/kWh from Nuon.
When Zaanstad becomes a large scale producer of distributed renewable generation – i.e. solar and
wind energy – and delivers this electricity back to the grid, it loses (0.0712 – 0.0588=) 0.0193 € on
every kWh it produces. The total electricity consumption of Zaanstad currently equals 2.3 PJ (=639
GWh) per year. If Zaanstad wants to supply the electricity for the demand of its whole municipality in
2020 by renewable distributed generators, Zaanstad pays 12.3 million per year € to Nuon.
A far better option is that Zaanstad creates or participates in a cooperative and trades electricity on
the energy market by itself. This way Zaanstad can provide electricity for its own usage without
paying an energy company fees. The surplus of energy can be traded on the APX spot market.
Through Smart Grid technologies Zaanstad can create a Virtual Power Plant, which will make
financially and technical favorable decisions. This way, Smart Grid technologies can be used to lower
the impact on the distribution network and make financial favorable decisions.
7 This calculation includes taxes, but excludes payments for to the distribution network owner Alliander.
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