Finally some good news about the jam-packed electricity grid. Tennet, the operator of the national high-voltage network, says it can distribute 805 megawatts in North Brabant over the next two years to companies waiting for a power connection. That is more than five times the electricity consumption of Den Bosch.
The space is mainly created by Tennet simply adding new components – new cables underground, new lines in the air and extra transformer stations in which electricity is converted into the correct voltage – so that the power grid can transport more electricity from source to user. But also because the electricity needs of customers who already have a connection are expected to grow less rapidly in the coming years than previously anticipated. This also creates space for new customers.
The so-called grid congestion, the lack of space on the power grid, is a consequence of the successful progress of sustainability in the Netherlands. This means electrification, and therefore heating, cooking and driving on sustainably generated electricity, for example through solar panels. The power grid then transports the (sustainable) electricity from source to user. But the grid has been reaching its limits for years due to rapid electrification. In many places in the Netherlands, companies that want to purchase electricity or supply it to the power grid end up on a long waiting list.
This is also the case in North Brabant. The national high-voltage grid, to which mainly large users such as factories are connected, has been virtually closed since 2022. Anyone who wants a smaller connection from the regional grid operator Enexis will also be put on the waiting list. Tennet and Enexis together have more than 3,500 people waiting in North Brabant. Together they ask for around 3,700 MW of capacity.
Netting arrangement
For this reason, grid operators are making frantic efforts to quickly expand the power grid, including in North Brabant. “In 2026, Tennet expects to release 200 MW in West Brabant with the delivery of an additional transformer at the Geertruidenberg high-voltage station,” in a press release. In the rest of the province, similar expansion projects will lead to 405 MW of additional space, according to the grid operator.
The remaining 200 MW will become available because the electricity demand from current customers is growing less rapidly than previously expected. In other words: entrepreneurs and households will purchase less electricity within the space they have under their current contract. According to Enexis, this is, for example, because the netting scheme will be abolished in 2027, whereby you receive the same price for the electricity you generate with your solar panels and then supply back to the grid as for the electricity you purchase. Solar panels are therefore less popular among private individuals, meaning they need less space to supply power back to the grid.
This may be bad news for the sustainability of the Netherlands, as it is a signal that electrification is progressing more slowly. But this does create space for companies that, for example, want to make their business processes more sustainable by electrifying them through the connection.
Thanks to the 805 MW that will be released on the high-voltage grid, according to Tennet, hundreds of people waiting will have a power connection in the next two years. The issuance is done step by step. First, 200 MW will be made available. Of this, 120 MW goes to Tennet customers and 80 MW to regional Enexis. There they will then calculate how they can connect more regional customers to the high-voltage grid. It is still unknown exactly which customers will receive a connection. It is certain that more than a quarter of the space that will become available is intended for tech companies in the Brainport region in Eindhoven.
Robert Kuik, Director of Network Planning at Tennet, speaks of “extremely good news” for a province where “sustainability, housing construction and economic growth are central”.
The developments in Brabant give hope to those waiting elsewhere in the Netherlands. Because in many more places in the country, electricity demand is growing less rapidly than expected, just like in North Brabant. And in other congestion areas, grid operators are also building rapidly to strengthen the grid.
Nevertheless, network operators cannot expand quickly enough to provide a connection to everyone who wants it. This requires flexible use of the power grid, for example, where users do not have to charge their cars en masse at peak times. Grid operators have been saying it for years: the Netherlands must get used to the idea that there will not always be power for everyone at all times.
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