Robert Kuik, director of networking manager TenneT, speaks in a statement of an “extremely disappointing message”. According to him, the projects are struggling with unforeseen obstacles: “Long -term procedures, complex location issues and land acquisition that take much more time than we want”.
The Netherlands, Zuid-Beveland, 29 Aug, 2023 Tennet high-voltage pylons, increasing power needs and major changes in our energy supply, our electricity grid is becoming increasingly full. / Infrastructure high -voltage network in Zeeland from TenneT. Photo: ANP / Dutch height / Peter Hilz © ANP
Tennet is working everywhere in the Netherlands on aggravation and expansion of the overcrowded power grid. Initially Tennet assumed that the aforementioned projects would be ready in 2029, now that is 2033. But if there are more setbacks, it will probably only be 2035.
‘Locations dropped out’
The biggest problem is a high -voltage station that must rise north of Utrecht. The construction of that station is crucial for the expansion plans in the aforementioned regions. Many possible locations have already been investigated, but they all dropped out. An important reason for this is that such a station, which is twelve football fields, cannot simply be constructed in the field of UNESCO World Heritage Hollandse Waterlinies.
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A new location is now being looked at, near Haarrijn on the west side of the A2 motorway. But that means again a long research period. This location is also technically more complicated, which means that the actual construction phase takes longer.
Waiting lists for extra capacity
“This delay is a big blow to the 1500 customers who are already on the waiting list for extra capacity,” says Warmold ten Zijthoff, Utrecht regional director at the regional network manager Stedin. In the Flevopolder and in Gelderland, thousands of companies and institutions are also on waiting lists at Liander.
Increase of power consumption has never been estimated before. This puts the power grid in danger, TenneT warns. © Getty Images
The network operators do not exclude the fact that there may be restrictions later for the connection of, for example, new homes and charging stations. But that is not yet the case.
It is not the first delay in TenneT projects and probably not the last one. In April, Tennet already announced that some projects in Noord-Brabant and Limburg take longer than planned.
The network operator also gave a national warning that more projects can be delayed in the coming years. “We see that project plans are coming under pressure in more and more places.”