Are there enough charging stations and can the electricity grid handle them? The five most frequently asked questions about electric driving

“Yes, there is enough power,” says electric driving expert Blankaert. Although he makes a comment right away. “There will not be enough energy if everyone starts loading the power grid at the same time in the future.” So a better question is: “Is the power grid capable of handling the massive, simultaneous energy demand of the future?”

“High-voltage grid operator Elijah has planned this out to 2035: there is no shortage of electricity, but the power grid cannot handle providing huge amounts of power at the same time. So there will not be the same amount of power at all times of the day. “

Stegen puts it concretely: “Imagine you come home, turn on all the lights, turn on the oven, turn on the washing machine, and start charging your car with 11 kilowatts. If all the Belgians start doing this at the same time, then we have an energy problem. “

So we will have to spread our consumption. “During the day, we see days with huge amounts of solar energy, and then we have a surplus of electricity. In the morning and evening we see a huge increase in electricity demand due to heat pumps and electric cars. So it will be very important to charge electric cars during the day or at night. There will be a problem.”

This is also the reason behind the introduction of capacity tariffs. “The government wants to incentivize us in this way to spread your consumption more and prevent peaks. We automatically get frustrated, because you will pay more by not spreading your consumption,” Blancart concludes.

But we will also have to invest. However, if we want to continue providing the necessary electricity in the coming years. “We can rest assured until 2030. “More solar and wind energy have been added in recent years, and this will be supplemented by energy from existing power plants, but also from new gas power plants,” adds Jochen de Smet.

Grid operator Fluvius will also invest in the coming years to accommodate the rise of electric cars – but also heat pumps and solar panels. An additional 4 billion euros will be invested in the electricity network to meet all additional energy requirements. “We want to make sure that the electricity grid is ready to receive one and a half million electric cars in Flanders by 2030,” says Björn Verdot from Fluvius.