The electricity network is under fire from all sides: generators can no longer properly dispose of their green electricity and companies and new residential areas sometimes cannot get a connection. This puts the energy transition and climate goals at risk, grid operators warn. Now that Europe also wants to get rid of Russian gas, the pressure is mounting even further; The Dutch are turning to the heat pump and solar panels en masse to save natural gas.
Cables are being pulled and transformer stations are being built with all their might, but grid operators say they cannot keep up with the growth. At the same time, there are flaws in the way the power grid is currently organised, says Daan Schut of network company Alliander and chairman of the transition team at the umbrella organization Netbeheer Nederland.
There is often little demand in places where green electricity is generated, and vice versa. As a result, electricity is unnecessarily dragged. ‘Everyone knows that it is more efficient to grow vegetables in your own garden than to get them from South Africa. We also have to start looking at the energy supply in the same way.’ Electricity from your own roof is better than electricity from a solar meadow in Drenthe, is the idea.
The network umbrella organization has asked consultancy firm CE Delft whether the power grid can be used more intelligently, so that some of the problems can at least be temporarily solved. The report, which will be published on Wednesday, contains a number of recommendations. Here are the five most important:
1) Use electricity wherever it is produced
Electricity from the roofs of houses is best kept ‘behind the meter’. The idea is that if the ‘own power’ does not have to be fed into the large grid, the large grid will not be taxed further. Now consumers only use a small part of their own generated energy and the rest goes into the neighbourhood, often during the day when everyone is out of the house.
The fact that consumers use little of their own solar power is partly due to the netting arrangement. According to this agreement, households are allowed to deduct their self-generated electricity from the total consumption. As a result, solar panels pay for themselves faster. But solar power is now so popular that local power grids are in danger of being squeezed on sunny days.
The netting scheme will be phased out step by step in the coming years, but it must be accelerated, according to Schut and fellow network operators. He realizes that owners of solar panels are not cheering. They put thousands of euros into solar panels with the idea that they would pay for it relatively quickly. That now threatens to take much longer.
2) Subsidize batteries
Batteries are the miracle sponges of the energy transition: they can absorb excess power and release it later when the sun no longer shines (or when there is no wind). They are ideal for maintaining the wobbly balance between supply and demand of electricity. But they’re also precious, even as prices have plummeted over the past decade.
Do consumers have to invest thousands of euros in batteries again after they have already invested a lot of money in solar panels? Schut understand that it is a difficult issue. ‘But’, he says, ‘with a home battery you also save money.’ Because the self-generated electricity ‘stays behind the electricity meter’ thanks to the battery, no energy tax has to be paid on it.
Consumers really don’t need to install a giant battery with a giant price. With a small one, the largest power peaks can already be absorbed, so that makes the investment lower, according to Schut. Another advantage: some households can manage with a smaller grid connection, which in turn is cheaper. It is not certain whether these advantages will lead to consumers buying batteries en masse.
Solar parks must also start using large batteries. Just like at home, these can absorb the enormous oversupply of electricity on sunny days, to release it again in the evening, so that gas-fired power stations do not have to run as hard. Another advantage: the cables from the solar park can be laid thinner and therefore cheaper. Or more solar parks can be connected to the same connection, because the green energy is distributed more evenly. Minister Jetten of Climate announced last Friday that he does not want to subsidize this type of battery; too expensive, he judges. Jetten will look at how energy storage can be promoted.
There is another catch: batteries at solar parks now have to ‘pay’ for the return of electricity, while this so-called producer rate does not exist if the same solar park supplies its electricity during the day. Batteries should also supply free of charge, because the power grid is then used much better. And they pay for themselves faster. Solar parks should actually start paying for the energy they supply during the day, so that everyone contributes equally to the power grid.
3) Look not only at the peaks, but also at the ‘residual space’ on the net.
The electricity grid is installed at the maximum load. When it is reached somewhere, it is just ‘full’. But just like on the highways, there are many times on the power grid when it is quiet. Use that space (for example at night) more efficiently. For example: if the power grid of a business park is full during the day, a transporter with e-trucks may be available to charge his trucks at night. This is already being experimented with.
4) Top off the maximum power of solar parks at 50 percent.
Solar parks alternate huge peaks with nothing. Because at night they supply no electricity and in winter only sparsely. Limit the maximum power to half and the total yield drops by only 11 percent, calculated CE Delft. With this limitation, many more farms can be connected, which supply more evenly. Good news for network companies: Climate Minister Jetten announced this measure last Friday.
5) Extensive extensions remain necessary.
Smart solutions are needed and help, because they free up about 30 percent more capacity. But much more will be needed in the coming years. CE Delft advises that additional construction must therefore be carried out at a rapid pace until 2030. But with a more efficient network, we can avoid unnecessary investments, says Schut.