Overview
Dries Bols is the chief executive of lifepowr, based in Antwerp. He founded the company in June 2015 and led it as managing director until January 2020, when he took up the role of chief executive. He has also sat on its executive board since September 2021, and has been chief executive of EWAVE BV since August 2021.
Before founding lifepowr, Bols worked in producing and artist management at Furthur Records from 2012 to 2015, and was a managing partner at FURTHUR from 2008 to 2015. He was project manager and chief financial officer at Antwerp Open Air between 2008 and 2013. From 2011 to 2012 he worked on the University of Antwerp Solar Boat as an energy systems development engineer, covering energy management.
Bols holds a Master of Science in Organization & Management from the University of Antwerp, taken in 2012 and 2013, following a bachelor's and a master's in electromechanical engineering within applied engineering. He gives his areas of expertise as business development, entrepreneurship, marketing strategy and project management.
Career history
In the news
- Over €1.26 billion in grid scale battery projects were announced in Belgium over the past months. Roughly €1M per megawatt, or €255 per kWh all in. Five projects, 1,234 MW. They need hectares of land, a permit, a TSO connection and a place in the queue. 18 to 30 months before they deliver. Part of that capacity is supported through capacity contracts and partly exempt from grid fees. Meanwhile, a plug in battery retails at around €0.5M per megawatt. A wall socket. No land, no permit, no queue. Next day delivery. No subsidy. Full grid
- Can a home battery out earn a grid battery? Per megawatt, yes. The fairest public yardstick for a Belgian grid battery is the Clean Horizon Storage Index for a 2-hour battery. Weighted on the same months, January to August 2026, it lands at €167.6k per MW per year. September isn't published yet, so that's the window we compare. Our orchestrated homes and businesses, 300 sites settled on real bills, over the same eight months: €168.4k. (Through September its €169k, as in my last post.) The same battery on its own, on max
- 169k per megawatt per year. Not a forecast. Settled. For years the flex conversation was about potential. It's now shifted to receipts. On our 🇧🇪 sites that run the full value stack, from January to August 2026, we captured an annualized Gross Added Value of €169k per MW of battery power. Three layers, continuously optimized: ➕ Behind the meter steering: €86k (49%). Self consumption, peaks, tariff. ➕ rPOWR, balancing for the TSO (Elia): €47k (27%) ➕ ePOWR, energy market trading: €41k (24%) And a fourth layer is still waiting:
- Post 2 of 5. "A regular tariff, on steroids". What if the best dynamic tariff is one the customer never sees? That's the idea behind what we built with our supplier partners. On the outside: a standard tariff. A normal bill. One extra line that settles everything, once a month. Nothing to watch, nothing to switch on. Underneath: a hyperdynamic tariff. Every connection gets its own position on the wholesale market and reacts to real time imbalance prices. The swarm of orchestrated batteries, inverters and chargers feeds off the
- At FLEXCON - The Energy Flexibility Conference last week I asked a room full of flexibility experts a question: "Who here is on a dynamic electricity contract?" Plenty of hands went up. Its FlexCon, after all. Then: "keep your hand up if you delayed cooking or changed appliance use the night before because the price hit 50 cents per kWh." Almost every hand dropped. If the people whose job is flexibility dont do it, why would a random family in Ghent? The numbers agree. Retailers have offered dynamic tariffs for years, yet only
- Tomorrow, our CEO Dries Bols will take the stage at FLEXCON - The Energy Flexibility Conference! ⚡ If you're around Antwerp on the 23rd or 24th, come talk to us about all things EMS+, grid balancing and the industry’s latest. See you there. #FlexCon #FlexConAntwerp #TeamLIFEPOWR #EnergyFlexibility
- See you tomorrow at FlexCon?
- Mark your calendar: LIFEPOWR is heading to FLEXCON - The Energy Flexibility Conference in Antwerp, 23–24 September. ⚡ Our CEO, Dries Bols, will be talking about why we need to stop asking consumers to be flexible. If you're going to be in Antwerp, come find us! We'd love to show you what we've been building and hear what's on your radar for the year ahead. Can't make it in person? Drop a comment, we'll make sure the right person follows up. #FlexCon #FlexConAntwerp #EnergyFlexibility #EMS #LIFEPOWR
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