Thanks to a so-called ’emergency lane’ in the high-voltage grid, a large Oranjepoort solar park near Oranjedorp and Energiepark Pottendijk (wind and solar) near Emmer-Compascuum can use the grid for their generated electricity. The municipality of Emmen has the first in the Netherlands with this.
Grid operators Tennet and Enexis started using the ‘strip’ at the high-voltage substation near Weerdinge this afternoon.
Three years ago, the development of several solar and wind farms all over the Netherlands, including in Emmen, came to a halt. Then both network operators announced that they no longer had connection capacity in the area. It could take until 2029 for the grid to be expanded to accept solar and wind energy.
Malfunction
Technical adjustments have therefore been made at the high-voltage substation in the municipality of Emmen. The hard shoulder can be regarded as a kind of reserve network that can be switched to when the regular network is disconnected. For example, due to a malfunction or maintenance work.
This reserve net is hardly ever used. Other use was also not allowed, until a change in the law in 2021 made this possible.
“These emergency lanes can now be used for the transport of generated solar and wind energy,” says Han Slootweg, director of Enexis. In Emmen, a technical installation, say a kind of switch button, has been installed at the high-voltage substation.
Emmen first
In the event of a failure in the grid, pressing that button can temporarily switch to the actual function of that hard shoulder, if necessary: keeping the supply of electricity to the consumer in line in the event of grid problems. “Because of course we don’t want our customers to be left in the dark.”
It is the intention that this solution will be applied in more places in the Netherlands. Since Emmen was the first nationally to encounter capacity problems, it was only logical that this municipality was the first to be addressed, according to Slootweg.
100 to 150 percent
The hard shoulder alone is not sufficient as a solution, however. “With this application, we can free up thirty percent extra capacity. A serious drink for a drink. But if you look at the ambitions of this region, you rather need 100 to 150 percent.”
For this reason, Enexis and Tennet will be working on the expansion of nine existing stations throughout Drenthe in the coming years. At four places (Meppel, Wijster, Hoogeveen and Veenoord) brand new stations will be added.
Slootweg: “We expect to complete this work in the second half of this decade. We are still in the start-up phase and discussions with local residents have yet to start. All in all, this takes a lot of time.”
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