Business leaders call on Cabinet to fix power grid congestion

The business organizations VNO-NCW Brabant Zeeland and VNO-NCW Midden (Flevoland, Gelderland, Overijssel, and Utrecht) called on the Cabinet to treat power grid congestion as a national crisis. In a letter to State Secretary Jo-Annes de Bat (Climate and Green Growth), they outlined proposals for tackling the overloading power grid. The municipality of Eindhoven and the regional business associations have also signed the appeal.

The companies refer to a part of the province of Utrecht, where no new connections to the congested power grid will be possible from July. Companies or residents who want a new or higher-capacity connection will end up on a waiting list.

“We want, and must, prevent this scenario in other economic regions at all costs,” the business organizations write. “Because if regions like Brainport Eindhoven grind to a halt, it affects the heart of the Dutch high-tech and manufacturing industry, where the machines for the global chip industry are made. At the same time, chemical and energy companies in Noord-Brabant and Zeeland are working on making the industry more sustainable, and a large part of the logistics on which the Netherlands economically relies operates here.”

According to the business networks, the severity of the situation has still not sufficiently sunk in in The Hague. Therefore, they want the Cabinet to immediately come up with a crisis plan for grid congestion. Among other things, they propose actively seeking how large consumers can reduce their consumption and create more capacity on the power grid, and introducing a crisis law with immediate effect to allow for faster expansion of the power grid.

They also urge the government to encourage citizens and businesses to use batteries, and to compel the grid operators to share figures and other information regarding the actual available transport capacity and power levels at high-voltage substations. The latter would enable companies and municipalities to make targeted investments in measures relevant to their specific situation.