Dutch power grid company TenneT has announced the availability of more than 9GW of capacity on its high-voltage grid through flexible contracts outside peak usage hours.
The initiative aims to attract high-energy users who have been on a waiting list due to grid saturation, offering a solution to capacity constraints.
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The new time-dependent contract allows TenneT to make 40% of current national peak electricity demand available to interested customers.
The company plans to reach out to all potential customers who have shown interest in this new product.
The estimated 9.1GW of capacity available for time-dependent transmission right (TDTR) contracts includes 4GW on the 380,000 and 220,000-volt high-voltage grid and 5.1GW on the 150,000 and 110,000-volt high-voltage grid.
The capacity on the 150,000 and 110,000-volt grids is further divided by province or region.
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By GlobalDataAllocation has been completed for 2.3GW of the available capacity, and TenneT will distribute the remainder on a first-come, first-served basis, considering social priorities.
TDTR contracts provide customers connected to the TenneT high voltage grid the right to transport electricity for a fixed number of hours per year, at least 85% of the time. During the remaining 15%, TenneT may limit electricity purchase or feed-in during peak periods, informing customers at least one day in advance.
The requested TDTR capacity significantly exceeds current peak electricity demand in the Netherlands, which is now around 19GW and expected to rise to 27GW by 2030.
TenneT chief operations officer Maarten Abbenhuis stated: ‘We are working on expanding the electricity grid throughout the Netherlands. We also need to use the grid more intelligently and make better use of the remaining capacity outside peak hours. Today we are taking a big step in this direction. We have more than 9 gigawatts to allocate to our customers on the waiting list. That is a huge amount!”
TenneT anticipates that flexible grid users could save up to 65% on grid tariffs through TDTR and intelligent use of time-dependent tariffs.
Customers have applied for more than 70GW of TDTR capacity from TenneT, with the majority of applicants being large battery farms, some of which have submitted multiple applications.
TenneT estimates that by 2030, the economically viable flexible capacity for large-scale batteries will be around 5GW, much less than the 70GW requested.
