Ben Voorhorst, former director of grid operator Tennet, must in the short term ensure that grid operators, the government and local businesses reach agreements to ‘use the grid smarter’. Furthermore, all those parties must work together better to expand the capacity on the power grid as quickly as possible.
Jetten announced this on Thursday afternoon after consultation with ‘all parties involved’. He expects, among other things, that Voorhorst will persuade companies not to purchase energy temporarily for a fee at times when the demand for electricity is high. Companies that have requested capacity, but do not use it, will also be asked to offer it to companies that really need the power.
According to Jetten, the real solution in the slightly longer term must come from a further expansion of the power grid. ‘Tennet has 2 billion euros available for Limburg and Brabant over the next ten years.’ Voorhorst must intervene in this too so that all parties involved do their utmost to go through the often grueling permit processes as quickly as possible.
Last week it became clear that companies in North Brabant and Limburg can no longer get new electricity connections because the high-voltage grid is full. The many fast-growing companies in the provinces – including the flourishing tech companies around Eindhoven and the chemical industry near Geleen – have reserved about 800 megawatts of capacity in a very short time. That is the same as four times the electricity consumption of Den Bosch. This power is needed, among other things, to electrify processes for which energy is currently used that comes directly from gas. Due to all these requests, the limits of Tennet’s high-voltage grid, and partly also the grid of the local provider Enexis, have been reached within a very short time.
Laying a towel
But last week it also became clear that a large part of that reserved capacity is still needed mainly ‘on paper’. Companies have plans for the future and are already making reservations for the connection they think they will need. It’s called “towel laying” after the way tourists in resorts often get up early in the morning to drape their towel on the beach chair closest to the pool, then walk off for breakfast.
The ‘use it or lose it’ principle must therefore apply to such companies: capacity requested that is not used is made available to other companies. Jetten says in his press release on Thursday that he wants to offer as much flexibility as possible in legislation and regulations in anticipation of the new Energy Act.
‘Given the current situation, it is of course sensible to ensure that the scarce capacity is used as effectively as possible’, says Martien Visser, professor of energy transition at Hanze University of Applied Sciences. ‘Although in practice it will still be quite complicated. Because as a company you want to be sure that you can get a connection when you start an expensive and complicated project to electrify your business. If you don’t get a connection if such a process takes longer than expected, you do have a big problem.’
Structural solution
Visser calls the intended coordinator ‘a good one’, but states that the real solution to the major congestion problems must be much more structural than the measures that are now being mentioned. ‘The law is now arranged in such a way that Tennet and grid operators are only allowed to invest in capacity when there is demand. They are not allowed to work ahead. But the demand for electricity can increase enormously in two to three years, while expanding the power grid often takes up to ten years.’
Expanding the power grid as quickly as possible where there is currently a demand, as Jetten now envisions, is still too reactive, according to Visser. ‘Congestion problems are occurring in more and more places in the Netherlands, and that is often because electricity is not generated on demand. So there must be more activity in the vicinity of wind and solar parks. There needs to be much better control over that.’