The endless queue with companies that want a new or heavier connection to the power grid still continue to grow rapidly. Despite the billions that network operators spend to expand the electricity grid and despite the effort they make to use the already existing just more efficient, it is not possible to free up enough capacity. All national and regional efforts cannot keep up with the growing electricity demand. The figures published on Monday from umbrella organization Netbeheer Nederland about the shortage on the power grid show an “uncomfortable message”, concludes Jinny Moe Soe Let, Director of Policy and Communication.
Based on those new figures, outgoing climate and green growth Sophie Hermans wrote one letter To the House of Representatives about the progress of measures against the shortage on the power grid, which she also published on Monday. The Netcongestie problem, as it is officially called, “is still increasing,” writes Hermans. And “there are no more easy solutions.”
Unusual for growth generated energy
Why is the situation on the power grid so dire again? To achieve climate goals, the Netherlands must get rid of fossil fuels and to green electricity. For example, electricity generated with solar panels or windmills. That switch runs energetically. But the current energy infrastructure is not set up to transport all that generated electricity from source to user. For example, there are simply not enough cables under the ground and electricity houses. Other European countries are also struggling with Netcongestie.
Companies that want to supply (green) electricity to the power grid do not always get a connection for that. And vice versa: companies that want a new or heavier connection do not always get it. The net is not always full everywhere, but during peak times, when users reduce energy to cook and charge the car, for example, it runs into limits.
According to the figures published on the Netherlands on Monday, 14,044 applications are now on the waiting list to purchase electricity from regional network operators such as Stedin and Enexis. Last year there were 11,922. Another 8,539 applications are on the waiting list to deliver electricity to regional network operators, compared to 8,440 in 2024.
If you look at the queue for the national power grid of Tennet, to which, for example, batteries and data centers are connected, you will see that the waiting list has shrunk. Last year 279 companies were on the waiting list for current collection, which has since fallen to 212. In 2024, 256 games were in the queue to provide energy to the net. The queue for that has shrunk to 161. That contraction is not because the congestion problem at Tennet is resolved, but because companies withdraw from the waiting list. Especially battery companies that were low on the list withdrew their application.
The bitter is that network operators do indeed build hard to answer the growing demand for transport capacity. Last year, network operators jointly spent around eight billion euros expanding the steam network, and that amount will only increase in the coming years. But the demand for transport capacity is growing faster than network operators.
Flexible contracts
The so -called flexible contracts, which network operators control, are also insufficiently getting off the ground, according to Hermans. With a flexible contract, companies are financially stimulated to purchase electricity outside peak hours. In this way the electricity demand can be better distributed and more companies and housing complexes can get a connection with the already existing network. But: “During working visits in the country, I also hear that companies and network operators take a lot of time and effort to make workable agreements about it,” writes Hermans. For companies that already have a connection, it often does not pay to investigate and organize their energy consumption differently. Even if this is a cheaper flexible energy contract. Studying energy consumption takes a lot of manpower, and it is detrimental to many companies to have to close their doors at certain times.
Investigate network operators how they can burden the existing power grid heavily than usual. Traditionally, network operators try to exclude risks as much as possible. “We have a legal assignment to provide energy with a certain certainty,” says Moe Soe Let. If too much electricity flows through parts, they can overheat and switch off. To prevent that, there is a certain safety margin built into the amount of current that can flow through a certain part. “But the current situation forces us to push the boundaries more. At the moment it is being investigated” what this means for the reliability of the network, “writes Hermans. The results are expected at the beginning of 2026.
Hermans is going to table with network operators and the business community to investigate how they can build faster, use it more efficiently and make better prognoses for capacity and demand in the future. Faster building asks, writes, “writes for social choices between raising and other interests such as local autonomy, participation in local residents and the use of space.”
Not enough space in the Netherlands
But, says Moe Soe Let, “we already know that we can never contribute enough to provide for the ever -growing demand. Also not in ten years. Because demand is growing so fast, and there is simply not enough physical space for the Netherlands to continue to build indefinitely to meet the demand. Moreover, the costs would then be extremely high.” Those costs are ultimately paid by the consumer via the net rates.
The new reality must penetrate companies and citizens, says Moe Soe Let: electricity will not always be available at any time and everywhere. “Households and companies must handle their energy consumption more flexibly, so that the available capacity in the country can be smartly distributed.” That means, for example: no electric cars between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., the moment when the power grid is full, something that network managers have been asking for more than a year for. “That is the new reality that citizens and companies will have to get used to.”
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