Interview with Peter Molengraaf (CEO Liander). Taken from the book ”Breakthrough”, special edition for TEDxAmsterdam 2009.
For me TED is all about multi-disciplinarian stimulus and cooperation. It is inspiring, fun and creative. TED enables talented and gifted people from different fields working and learning together to solve problems and to strive for a better world.
My introduction to TED and also my favorite TEDTalk, is Karen Armstrong’s talk about Compassion. Compassion makes life worthwhile and is the basis of what we do. This talk is also a great example of how TED shares insight and inspiration.
TED inspired me further with my idea that a lot of problems – like our energy, clean water and poverty challenges – can’t be solved by a single approach. To solve these bigger and important issues people need to work together. People from different fields need to share and build their knowledge and be inspired by each other.
My personal breakthrough was the moment I realized that all we do in society today is educate, focus and reward people for specialization in one discipline. This approach has brought great benefits to society and living standards, but also many increasingly complex problems. If you ask four different people from different fields to look at a single complex problem you will get four totally different solutions, reflecting their educational and professional perspectives. This does not work anymore. We need to educate people and teach people to work much more multi-disciplinarian. We need to be able to look beyond the scope of our own field of expertise and come together with new answers and creative, integrated solutions. TEDxAmsterdam can play an important role in realizing this goal.
Tip: Look beyond the scope of your own field.
Liander as the renewable energy facilitator of the Netherlands
The Dutch energy network companies have an important social responsibility. Our society is highly dependent on energy, and it is Liander’s job to safeguard a reliable energy supply. As a network company, Liander has an important role in the transition of energy; from energy dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energy generated locally by solar collectors, wind turbines, highefficiency boilers or biogas. In the latter case, households produce energy for their own use, but they can also supply the grid. To facilitate this development, the energy grids will have to be fitted to enable two-way traffic of energy and the grid manager will need a better understanding of the traffic and capacity of the energy grids. This development requires new gas and electricity grid distribution standards and investment in the quality and intelligence of our grids to meet our renewable energy goals.
Electric cars
As a renewable energy facilitator, Liander initiates developments in collaboration with other parties. Electric transport can help us reach the government’s renewable energy goals: 20% renewable energy, a reduction of CO2 emissions and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. One way to achieve these goals is electric transport. Currently, there are relatively few electric-powered cars in the Netherlands. In spite of this, Liander, in a joint venture with other network providers, is installing 10,000 recharge points in the Netherlands over the next few years. Liander is doing this first of all to jump-start this development and, secondly, to learn how the use of electric cars will impact on the electricity grid. The demands of sustainable mobility on the energy networks are far-reaching. The amount of power needed to charge a battery for an electric car can supply a household for five days. In order to demonstrate the viability and feasibility of electric transport and to learn from this experience, Liander will roll out 30 electric cars for its meter readers.
Credits
Text: Elise de Bres
Translation: Ferhaan Kajee
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