"My job involves weighing up what we can and cannot do"

”About 3 years ago, I sold my company and started working at Alliander in the department that later became System Operations. I’m really proud to be working on such relevant issues at the moment. It challenges me, and allows me to fully develop myself in terms of my technical, management and communication skills. There are no restrictions at System Operations, and we decide for ourselves which opportunities we want to seize.”

Our net is like a motorway

“The net is stretched to its capacity because it’s being overloaded. I like to compare it to a motorway; occasionally, traffic jams occur. So, does that mean we should immediately build extra lanes? No. In the Netherlands, for example, you can use the rush-hour lane, or set speed limits at certain times. At System Operations, we study new ways of using the existing grid as efficiently as possible while maintaining safety. I call it grid management 2.0.”

Major social importance

“It’s an area that’s incredibly important to society. For example, some companies want to expand or become more sustainable, and the generation of green energy is increasing. Those involved are all requesting more transport capacity. If there’s no capacity available in existing cables, it’s a big problem. In reality, organisations are sometimes stuck on a waiting list for years. We develop solutions at System Operations that allow our company to still respond with a ‘yes’, because we use our network in a smarter way.”

Building smart systems

”There isn’t any software that can meet our needs within our timeframe, so we’re developing our own applications with 18 scrum teams. We’re using machine learning and AI for this, an incredibly complex process. However, being part of this is incredibly interesting. System Operations relies heavily on open source. We develop the software together with partners, including grid managers at home and abroad, which is how we learn from and help each other.”

Determining the direction taken

”As a product owner at System Operations, I’m part of a scrum team and responsible for part of the whole process. My job involves weighing up what we can and cannot do, now and in the future. This always requires collaboration and consultation with stakeholders, colleagues, businesses, and the government. A lot has to be coordinated, and everybody wants something from me. While I may say yes to one, I sometimes have to say no to another, so I have to be able to substantiate the decisions I make. It demands a great deal from my management and communication skills.”

A successful delivery in Amsterdam

“We successfully completed a pilot in Amsterdam that I’m very proud of. The issue we had to resolve was; ‘How can more charging stations be connected to the grid, without exceeding the technical limit?’ With our partners, we experimented with a new way of allocating capacity. A combination of twenty-four-hour forecasts and measurements gives us insight into the capacity available. This information is communicated by smart apps, so that the power can be distributed among active charging stations. This has enabled us to show that 3 times as many charging stations can be connected to the same cable.”

Creating value

“We have three goals at System Operations: ensuring that more customers can connect to the grid, facilitating new ways and means of dealing with energy, and monitoring grid safety. As a product owner at System Operations, you can, in a manner of speaking, run your own company and help achieve these goals. We’re given all the space and freedom we need to decide how to do this. The question I ask myself over and over is’ ‘What can I do to create value for my customers? In terms of technology or making life easier for customers, it could be anything, as long as we can connect our customers faster. That’s the priority.”