Netherlands to add 35,000 new public charging points

The tender organised by the e-mobility project agency MRA-Electric is for public AC charging points. Three providers were able to prevail: Ubitricity, Vattenfall InCharge and TotalEnergies. They will install, manage and operate the new charging stations.

It is not clear from the companies’ announcements how many charging points each operator will connect to the grid. There is talk of “up to 35,000 public charging points”. According to its own information, Ubitricity is entitled to the largest share of the charging points to be built by the three operators. “The ratio in the realisation of chargers of each of the CPOs will be reviewed periodically based on performance,” the company wrote.

According to Vattenfall InCharge, the first columns could go into operation as early as the middle of the year. All new public AC columns from all three operators are to be connected to the grid by 2028. They will also enable smart charging. This means that they supply electricity when there is a particularly large amount available in the grid. According to MRA-Electric, this happens automatically. All three operators also offer variable charging tariffs so that electric car drivers can also benefit from smart charging and save money.

Because a large part of the area in which the new charging stations are to be installed is confronted with grid bottlenecks, the new charging stations are intended to enable “grid-aware charging”. “At points in the grid where the demand for electricity is temporarily too high, the charging station operators can temporarily reduce the capacity of the charging stations,” reads the press release from MRA-Electric.

In addition to the public AC charging points, MRA-Electric also put fast-charging stations in the area out to tender. In this case, the concession went to Shell, TotalEnergies and NXT 50five. As reported, the latter is relying on ADS-TEC columns. 600 new fast chargers will be connected to the grid as part of the tender – 200 from each of the three operators. According to MRA-Electric, the municipalities have already designated 176 locations for the new DC columns.

This is the first time that three provinces in the Netherlands have participated in a joint tender for fast-charging stations. Around three-quarters of the municipalities in the provinces of North Holland, Flevoland and Utrecht have joined forces for this.

mra-e.nl (AC charge points, in Dutch), vattenfall.com, ubitricity.com, mra-e.nl (DC charge points, in Dutch), 50five.com (in Dutch)