The number of companies waiting for a new or heavier connection to the power grid has increased considerably in the past year. There is currently a waiting list in Brabant with 1300 applications and that worrying number is expected to increase further. “The gap between supply and demand on the electricity grid is growing and growing,” reports network manager Enexis.
Since June 2022, the electricity grid in Brabant is almost full. “There is hardly any room for new or heavier connections,” says Tim van Ham, spokesman for Enexis. “The problems arose due to the rising gas prices as a result of the war in the Ukraine. Entrepreneurs want to switch en masse from gas to electricity. Households also cook, heat and drive electrically more often. The energy transition has taken off enormously.”
The network company had expected new requests. “But it became a real tsunami. That surprised us,” says Van Ham.
25 nodes
After a year, the capacity problem has only increased. Enexis has 35 electricity stations in the province. There are companies on a waiting list for every station. As an example of the dire situation, we give the waiting lists of four major cities.
- Breda (60 companies).
- Den Bosch (100 companies).
- Tilburg (160 companies).
- Eindhoven (160 companies).
Households
That does not mean that no company is helped. “But there are more applications than companies that we can check off,” says Van Ham. He notes that private individuals need not worry about the scarcity. “In principle, we always leave room for households and small users in our calculations.”
The applications do not only concern consumers of electricity. Providers, such as farms with their own solar park, are also waiting to be connected to the power grid. Some power producers have invested tens of thousands of euros, but are not seeing a cent back for the time being.
Economic growth
After the initial panic last summer, peace around the electricity grid returned somewhat at the end of 2022. There was still room for new connections because companies, after consultation with network manager TenneT, were able to transfer part of their power consumption to off-peak hours. But the full network still has an inhibiting effect on economic growth in Brabant. Companies can hardly start or expand.
That is why we are working hard to expand the power grid. For example, this year Enexis is investing 456 million euros in the so-called medium voltage network, which is especially important for households and small businesses. The operator of the large high-voltage grids, TenneT, plans to expand the electricity connection between Eindhoven and the Claus power plant in Maasbracht. That job, starting next summer, will take two years, with a firm caveat.
Nitrogen
The network manager points out the problems that have arisen due to excessive nitrogen emissions. “As a result, the province does not just grant building permits at the moment. Not even for the construction or construction of new electricity stations and pylons, while these projects can actually lead to lower nitrogen emissions,” Tennet said.
The Enexis spokesperson also tempers expectations that are too high: “The shortage on the power grid will probably not change for the next five to ten years. The construction of a new high-voltage substation, for example, can easily take ten years.”
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