News item | 16-06-2022 | 18:41
Ben Voorhorst has been immediately appointed by the Minister for Climate and Energy and the provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg as the special coordinator for tackling the problems with the full electricity grid in both provinces. mr. As a coordinator, Voorhorst will work together with the grid operators TenneT and Enexis, the provinces, municipalities, the business community and the national government to create more space on the electricity grid as quickly as possible. Among other things, by jointly investigating which measures can be accelerated or brought forward and by making smarter use of the electricity grid. In addition, parties will work on expanding the electricity grid more quickly and adapting regulations.
Under the guidance of Ben Voorhorst, the parties involved will immediately get to work with various measures. In the short term, smarter use of existing grid capacity can provide scope for new connections. For example, by making agreements with companies to use less electricity at busy times for a fee. TenneT has started a process to make reserved, unused capacity available again as much as possible. In addition, the parties involved will accelerate joint spatial planning and permit procedures so that the required infrastructure can be built more quickly.
Ben Voorhorst was chairman of the system table of the Climate Agreement. Until 2021, Mr. Voorhorst Director of Operations (COO) at national grid operator TenneT. He was also president of ENTSO-E, the European network of network operators.
Minister Jetten for Climate and Energy: “The provisional stop to heavy electricity connections for companies has major consequences. We must therefore do everything we can with all parties involved to limit the problems as quickly as possible, as much as possible. TenneT will invest at least 2 billion euros in both provinces over the next 10 years. In addition, we must be fully committed to short-term solutions. We have made clear agreements about this today. We are going to work with quick solutions to offer more space with the existing capacity on the electricity grid. In anticipation of the new Energy Act, I want to offer as much flexibility as possible in legislation and regulations. We are also working on accelerating the structural expansion of the grid. I am pleased that Ben Voorhorst will be available to help us with this in the near future.”