As a Project Manager Wind Energy & Consultant I mainly support onshore wind projects during the development, contracting and construction phase.

One of the main projects I worked on was 'De Groene Centrale' (The Green Plant). De Groene Centrale optimizes the use of ground by combining a solar field with wind turbines at the same location. Also, De Groene Centrale will be tuned to the existing local electricity and heat networks. Depending on the energy production and local demand De Groene Centrale will be delivering electricity or heat. Besides these technical innovative elements, the ownership of De Groene Centrale will be (largely) in hands of the local community.

The technical traineeship covers a period of two years and is divided into three assignments of eight months each on different departments within the company Alliander. Besides the three assignment, during the course of the traineeship, a personal development program was followed led by the company Horizon. My first assignment was at the Asset Management - Innovation department. I was involved in projects concerning the energy transition in relations to the energy grids of Alliander (electricity, gas, heat). By creatively making use of the capacities of the different energy grids the amount of connected decentralized renewable energy production units can be optimized, with a minimum of investments in the individual grids. A good example representing this topic is project ‘De Grift’ where Liander, together with the municipality of Nijmegen and Wiek II (representing a renewable energy community), is developing an business area producing energy in the form corresponding to the local energy demand. Although I’m currently in my second assignment, I still participate in this project as co-project manager. My second assignment was at the IT Netplanning department as an Application Proces Consultant. I specifically focussed on use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) within the business processes of Alliander. I consulted business parties how GIS can enable them to perform spatial analysis. Part of my assignment was making business colleagues aware of the fact that most of the problems have an spatial component and can be tackled with the use of GIS. I finalized my second period with an advice report for the company Alliander how they can optimize the use of GIS in order to better support business processes and solve spatial challenges.