Launched in 2019 under the Dutch Climate Agreement, the NAL brings together national and regional authorities, municipalities, grid operators, knowledge organizations and market participants. It aims to ensure drivers can charge safely, reliably and intelligently across homes, workplaces, public spaces and logistics sites.
The Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur is a national cooperation framework focused on expanding charging infrastructure while improving how it is connected, controlled and integrated into an increasingly congested electricity system.
Why was the Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur introduced?
The Dutch Climate Agreement set the expectation that all new passenger cars sold in the Netherlands would be emission-free by 2030. Reaching this ambition requires charging infrastructure to develop ahead of demand rather than after electric vehicles are already on the road.
When the Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur was created, the national forecast indicated that approximately 1.7 million charge points – including private, public, semi-public and fast-charging infrastructure – could be required by 2030. At that time, the Netherlands had fewer than 50,000 public and semi-public electric vehicle charge points. The NAL stresses that 1.7 million is a projection based on information available in 2019, not a fixed policy target. Technological development e.g. faster charging capacity or longer vehicle range, as well as driver behavior can influence the number and types of charge points ultimately required.
Without coordinated planning, several problems can emerge:
- Charge points may be installed too late or in the wrong locations
- Grid capacity may be unavailable when new charging sites need to connect
- Local authorities may apply inconsistent procurement and permitting processes
- Drivers may encounter unreliable charging or unclear prices
- Charging demand may intensify existing electricity peaks
- Commercial fleets may be unable to electrify according to schedule
The Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur addresses these issues by aligning national policy with regional planning, municipal implementation and private-sector delivery.
How does the Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur work?
The NAL brings together the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, the Formula E-Team, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, the Association of Provincial Authorities, grid operators, ElaadNL and the National Knowledge Platform for Charging Infrastructure.
Much of the practical work is carried out through six regional cooperation structures. Provinces, municipalities and grid operators use these regions to coordinate charging strategies, procurement programs, forecasts and implementation based on local needs.
Municipalities play a particularly important role because they determine where public charging infrastructure can be installed. They must assess future charging demand, select suitable locations, arrange tenders and permits and ensure that residents without private driveways can access public charging.
Regional and neighborhood-level forecasts help authorities anticipate charging demand. These forecasts can be adjusted to reflect local characteristics such as parking policies, planned housing developments, zero-emission zones, logistics activity and the availability of grid capacity. Updated demand forecasts can then be shared with grid operators, helping them include electric mobility in their network planning.
The result is a system in which charging infrastructure is treated as part of spatial, mobility and energy planning rather than as a collection of isolated charge points.
What are the NAL’s main areas of focus?
The scope of the Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur covers several interconnected areas.
Public and private charging
The Netherlands needs a mix of home, workplace, public, semi-public and fast charging options. The appropriate mix differs by location. Urban residents may depend heavily on public curbside charging while drivers in less densely populated areas charge primarily at home.
Public infrastructure must remain sufficiently available as EV adoption grows. Authorities therefore monitor indicators such as charging pressure, geographic coverage, the number of plug-in vehicles per charge point and the distribution of different charging types and capacity.
Logistics and heavy-duty transport
The electrification of commercial vans and trucks requires much more power than passenger car charging. Depot operators may need to charge several vehicles simultaneously under certain restrictions.
Grid capacity can become a direct constraint on fleet electrification. The program supports logistics charging through planning tools, knowledge sharing and cooperation among companies, municipalities and grid operators. This is particularly important around logistics hubs, industrial areas, ports and zero-emission zones.
Charging safety and reliability
Charging infrastructure must comply with technical and physical safety requirements. This includes installations in parking garages, public spaces, workplaces and logistics facilities.
Reliability is equally important. Drivers and fleet operators need confidence that charge points will be operational and that vehicles will receive the required amount of energy before departure. As charging becomes more intelligently controlled, reliability depends on both hardware performance and the software coordinating charging sessions.
Transparent and interoperable charging
EV drivers should be able to understand charging prices and access infrastructure without unnecessary complexity. Interoperability between vehicles, charge points, charge point operators and e-mobility service providers helps create a consistent charging experience across networks.
Data exchange is also becoming more important. Smart and grid-aware charging requires accurate information about charging sessions, available site capacity, vehicle needs, tariffs and grid conditions.
Smart charging within the Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur
Smart charging, or slim laden, has become one of the NAL’s most important priorities.
Research referenced by the NAL found that, under a partial fleet-electrification scenario for 2030, 32% of assessed business connections would have insufficient capacity with uncontrolled charging. Smart charging reduced this share to 19%.
Instead of charging every vehicle at full power as soon as it is connected, smart charging adjusts when and how quickly vehicles charge. Control decisions can consider departure times, the number of connected vehicles, available site capacity, electricity prices, renewable generation or signals from the grid.
One form is netbewust laden, or grid-aware charging. This temporarily reduces charging power when the local electricity network is heavily loaded. Charging can then accelerate again when more capacity becomes available.
A Dutch winter pilot involving approximately 3,500 public charge points in Utrecht demonstrated the potential. During evening peaks, grid-aware charging reduced the load attributable to public charging by up to 49.5%. Most vehicles were still fully charged during the lower-demand nighttime period. The pilot also identified practical requirements, including minimum charging power, clear driver communication and the ability to opt out when immediate charging is necessary.
The next step is more dynamic grid-aware charging. Instead of applying the same restrictions during fixed time windows, charging systems can respond to location-specific signals sent in advance by grid operators. This allows available capacity to be allocated more precisely.
Smart charging is already moving into mainstream use. According to the NAL’s 2026 monitoring update, 57% of Dutch charging sessions in 2025 were smart charging sessions. The share reached approximately 51% at public charge points and 45% at workplace chargers.
In the longer term, bidirectional charging could allow EVs to store electricity and later supply it to a building or the grid. This could help absorb renewable generation, reduce peak demand and create additional flexibility. However, broad adoption will depend on compatible vehicles and chargers, interoperable communication, suitable tariffs and a viable commercial model.
What does the NAL mean for charging market participants?
The National Agenda for Charging Infrastructure affects a broad ecosystem.
For municipalities and provinces, it creates a structured approach to forecasting, procurement and regional coordination. For grid operators, it provides better visibility into future charging demand and creates mechanisms for implementing grid-aware charging.
For charge point operators, the agenda raises expectations beyond installing and maintaining hardware. Operators increasingly need to manage power dynamically, exchange data with grid operators and provide reliable charging within local capacity constraints.
E-mobility solution providers must give drivers transparent information and a consistent experience even when charging speeds are adjusted. Fleet operators need charging strategies that ensure operational readiness without exceeding the capacity of their grid connection.
For energy suppliers and flexibility providers, connected EV charging creates a growing pool of flexible electrical demand. Charging can potentially respond to wholesale prices, renewable availability, portfolio requirements and flexibility market signals as long as mobility requirements remain protected.
How gridX supports the objectives of the Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur
The transition envisioned by the NAL requires more than physical charging infrastructure. Charge points must be connected to an intelligent control layer that can coordinate power across chargers and other energy assets.
gridX’s EVCI products support this progression across three value layers:
- Control: Reliable charging within site limits
EVCI Control protects the local grid connection and electrical infrastructure. Fuse protection protects fuses at every layer from overloads. Through dynamic load management, charging power can be distributed across multiple charge points without exceeding the site’s capacity, always taking the full site consumption into account. Peak shaving provides 15-minute optimization to ensure grid fee limits are not exceeded within the according grid operator billing periods.
Regulatory compliance or DSO signaling ensures that grid operator signals are integrated to enable grid-friendly charging behavior. For example, by complying to §14a EnWG in Germany, EV charging sites can lower their annual operating costs by up to €6,000.
This directly supports the NAL’s need for reliable infrastructure and smarter use of scarce grid capacity.
- Optimize: Lower operational charging costs
EVCI Optimize coordinates charging according to operational requirements, energy prices, local generation and available capacity.
For example, charging can be shifted toward periods with lower prices or greater on-site solar production. At the same time, vehicles can still be prioritized according to their departure times and required state of charge. Batteries and photovoltaic systems can also be integrated to virtually expand the grid limit without physically extending the grid connection point.
This turns charging infrastructure into an actively managed energy system rather than a fixed electrical load.
- Flex: Monetize charging flexibility
EVCI Flex enables connected charging assets to participate in multiple energy markets. Aggregated charging demand can respond to market signals while respecting site limits and vehicle requirements.
This creates a path from basic load management toward flexibility trading and other revenue opportunities. It also reflects the direction of the Nationale Agenda Laadinfrastructuur: charging infrastructure should not merely avoid creating additional grid problems. With the right connectivity and optimization, it can contribute to a more flexible and resilient energy system.
All three layers run on gridX’s XENON platform, allowing CPOs, e-mobility solution providers and fleet managers to connect charge points and other distributed energy assets and expand a charging site into a portfolio of revenue-generating assets.
Future outlook
The next phase of the Netherland’s charging infrastructure will be defined by how intelligently capacity is used, not simply by how many charge points are installed. Reliable local control must come first: every vehicle needs sufficient energy without the site exceeding its grid limit. Once this foundation is in place, operators can optimize charging costs and eventually use aggregated charging capacity as a source of energy flexibility.
The NAL reflects this same progression. The Netherlands still needs more charging infrastructure, but scale alone will not solve the challenge. Connectivity, real-time control and coordination among chargers, sites and the electricity system will determine whether electric mobility can continue growing despite increasing grid constraints.
