What about the overloaded power grid?

Here's how the evening will go...

You come home from work. You take off your coat. You set down your bag. You turn up the thermostat and turn on the lights. While you’re cooking, the laundry is running, the TV is on in the background, and your phones are charging. Meanwhile, your electric car is plugged into the charging station, ready for tomorrow morning.

Cooking, loading the dishwasher, and doing laundry. That’s how the evening goes. Right?

We have electricity, right?

When we talk about electricity, the first thing that often comes to mind is the cost. The monthly bill. Saving money. But usually, we also feel a sense of peace. Electricity is just there. It works.

That feeling makes sense. For years, we mainly used electricity for lighting, household appliances, and the TV. But now we use it for so much more. We drive electric cars. We heat our homes with electricity. And we’re charging more and more devices—often out of habit, all at once, when we get home.

What happens at your house when you get home also happens at your neighbors’ houses. And at your neighbors’ neighbors’ houses. Our daily routine hasn’t changed much. But our electricity usage has. There’s a big spike when we get home and turn on lots of appliances at once. Street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, we all use a lot of electricity between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.

Something else has changed

Not only are we using more electricity, we’re also generating it ourselves. With roofs covered in solar panels, we feed a lot of electricity back into the grid every day—electricity that’s actually meant for our own use, preferably when the sun is shining. That’s because the grid isn’t designed to receive and supply that much power all at once.

The fact that our electricity usage is changing is a good thing. It leads to cleaner air and makes our daily lives easier. We can drive electric cars or ride electric bikes. Stay online all the time for work, school, and staying in touch with each other. Heat our homes without gas. And if we think even bigger: it makes us less dependent on other countries and better prepared for the future.

Here we are now

Because we use a lot of electricity in the evenings and feed a lot back into the grid during the day, we’re placing increasing demands on the power grid. Electricity doesn’t run out, but the grid can become overloaded. And eventually, it can become overloaded. Not because we’re doing anything wrong, but because our usage patterns are changing.

That's where we are now.

Sometimes, new schools, stores, and even residential neighborhoods can no longer be connected to the grid. This is to prevent the risk of power outages in the area. At home, you might not notice much of a difference. The lights are on, the freezer is running, and your phone is charging. But in the meantime, wait times are getting longer and longer.

That raises questions.

“Can’t we build more power lines and new substations?”
That’s already happening. Grid operators and the government are doing everything they can to expand the grid. But that takes time, space, and a lot of extra money. It helps, but it’s not the only solution.

‘What about businesses? Can’t they use less electricity?’
Certainly. Businesses too, from factories to bakeries, are being asked to manage their electricity use differently—by spreading energy consumption more evenly throughout the day and avoiding peak times.

“And what about us? What can we do?”
Much more than you might think. For most of the day, there’s plenty of power. Sometimes even too much. That’s exactly where we can make a difference. With small changes, we can help reduce the peak load on the power grid.

Small changes can make a big difference

Almost all of us are willing to adjust our electricity usage. We do this when we want to save money. But we often underestimate our impact: “Do my changes actually make a difference?” Yes, they do—and a big one at that.

Of course, we can just cook in the evening. But we often turn on a lot of other appliances around that time as well. We can reduce that with just a few small changes, such as:

• Turn on the washing machine during the day.
• Run the dishwasher or dryer later in the evening.
• Charging your electric car overnight.
• Use a timer or a smart app for your devices.

Every washing machine helps, especially when the whole neighborhood pitches in. That way, we spread our electricity usage more evenly throughout the day. And together, we reduce the peak demand.

This will free up space for new schools, stores, and homes. And it will give us the freedom to go more electric and save on additional costs.

Use less where possible, but above all, spread it out more evenly throughout the day.

That way, electricity keeps doing what it’s always done: simply being there when we need it.    

In conclusion

As a municipality, we believe it is important to share this story. Because it helps us understand what is going on and what we can do together. The construction and expansion of the power grid are not the responsibility of the municipality, but of the grid operators.