The huge renovation of our energy system demands good and transparent communication with customers. What can they expect from us when? With overview maps and regular updates, we provide insight into the developments on our grid and the waiting lists per HV/MV station. In 2023, we introduced a guide setting out possible solutions for more efficient energy consumption for businesses and industrial parks.
In more and more places, we are encountering the limits of the electricity grid. Of course, we are working hard on solutions by expanding and making more efficient use of the grid and working together more closely with partners and stakeholders. We are carrying out more work than ever. At the same time, we expect that we will continue to have waiting lists for large-volume customers in the coming five to ten years. That is painful. As businesses cannot be established, expanded or electrified as a result. Plans for the generation of renewable energy also have to be put on the shelf.
Communicating clearly with large-volume customers
Customers react differently to the situation. The really big customers have already foreseen the problems on the grid and are examining the possibilities that are still available. Smaller businesses and family-owned businesses are experiencing the problems more strongly.
We aim to inform customers as clearly as possible about developments, waiting lists, and possibilities. For instance, we introduced a map in 2023 that shows per province and per station the number of requests on the waiting list for electricity consumption and for feeding electricity back into the grid including the requested contract capacity. The planned grid expansion at the station, the year in which it will be carried out, and the expected capacity that will become available are also shown on the map. In addition, we inform customers about the capacity on our electricity grid via a monthly update. In this monthly update, we also discuss new congestion areas and we provide information on congestion studies. In addition, we held special days in 2023 on which customers could ask questions and we informed customers via employers’ organisations and sector organisations.
Dilemma: Balancing between transparency and uncertainties in the expansion of the electricity grid
Providing more insight is crucial in order to offer perspective to our large-volume business customers and stakeholders. Managing expectations is becoming increasingly important. We have to be able to tell our customers on the waiting lists when it actually is their turn. We are aiming for more transparency by communicating clearly about the duration and the progress of our work.
We are actively expanding the electricity grid, but the total capacity to connect customers also depends significantly on TenneT's expansion projects. A solid collaboration and close coordination with TenneT are therefore crucial, so that we gain better insight into TenneT's expansion project planning. Despite our efforts to align everything well, both we and TenneT continue to face uncertainties due to external developments, such as the autonomous growth of heat pumps and solar panels in households. These uncertainties affect predictability for our customers.
Solutions for large-volume customers
Customers freeing-up capacity
Businesses can also expand their capacity by changing their own energy behaviour. For example, they can shift part of their production to the night or charge their electric vehicle fleet at night. As there is often still enough capacity at night. In this manner, they free up capacity on the grid during the day. Another solution is not to expand their business activities at their own location, but in another area in the Netherlands where sufficient electricity is available.
The current situation is encouraging businesses to consider such solutions. We stimulate this by discussing the possibilities with customers and inviting them to consult with specialists in the market about this. There is also a guide on Enexis.nl aimed specifically at businesses and industrial parks that provides insight to businesses whether there are solutions for more efficient energy consumption, and if there are, what these solutions are.
Contracts for flexible capacity
In the context of congestion management, we inform and approach customers with possibilities to make more efficient use of the grid. For example, we ask them, during expected peak hours on the grid, to give part of their capacity back to us temporarily in exchange for a payment. We do this for both the consumption of electricity and for feeding electricity back into the grid. Customers can conclude flexible capacity contracts for avoiding peak hours. On our website, we inform large-volume customers about the options. They can also indicate whether they are interested in making flexible capacity available.
We concluded our first contract for avoiding peak hours on 1 September 2023 with Eneco for a wind energy project in Farmsum. During peak hours, Eneco temporarily reduces feeding the electricity of this wind farm back into the grid. The total capacity of the wind farm is around 25 megawatt of which 10 megawatt is flexible capacity. To illustrate: this is comparable to 30,000 new solar panels. To be able to serve as many customers on the waiting list as possible, we proactively approach customers who can provide flexible capacity.
Steering production
Feeding solar and wind energy back into the grid depends strongly on the weather. We make use of weather models to predict the feed-in. Sudden changes in the weather lead to deviations in these predictions. As a result, a grid overload can occur unexpectedly. It is then necessary for the certainty of supply of electricity to limit the feeding back in of electricity immediately. Until 2023, we could only do this by temporarily switching off the feeding of electricity back into the grid by customers without having entered into agreements with customers about this. We do not consider this a desirable solution for customers. This is why we introduced a new product in 2023: steering production. With this, the feed-in of solar parks and wind farms is temporarily limited when necessary. Customers who participate, receive compensation for this. We connected the first three customers in Den Ham in Overijssel in June 2023.
In the chapter Together towards a future-proof energy system another product called "ZonBalans" has been explained. We ran a pilot with ZonBalans in Tilburg in 2023. We approached 170 customers for this. Although there was interest for this product, it has unfortunately led to hardly any actual customers for this product. We plan to approach another 800 customers who are at the top of the waiting list in 2024.
Small-volume consumers are also experiencing inconvenience
The situation on the energy grid is less pressing for households and other small-volume customers than for large-volume customers. There is usually still capacity on the grid for a small connection. However, small-volume customers can also experience voltage problems or interruptions. The number of reports of voltage problems doubled in the first half of 2023 and outages of transformers occurred twice as often causing whole districts to be without electricity.
Small-volume consumers can also suffer inconvenience due to work being carried out in the street or new transformer stations arising in the neighbourhood. Moreover, more and more often, we are only able to connect new customers when new or upgraded cables have been laid. Therefore, they have to wait longer for their new or upgraded connection.
Communicating proactively with small-volume customers
To inform small-volume customers about any possible inconvenience, we communicate proactively and provide insight into the situation on the electricity grid. We do this in a number of ways:
We increased the amount of information on our website considerably in 2023. Visitors to our website can find information about the energy transition, the role of grid operators, and the to be expected problems directly via our homepage.
We started with the preparations for the media campaign ‘Vol Energie’. This campaign - which will run as from January 2024 - is aimed at making customers aware of the full energy grid and the consequences of this. We hope to create more understanding for the situation, the work that we are carrying out on the grid, and the choices that we are making. At the same time, we also explain how customers can adapt their energy consumption to avoid problems and we encourage them to request an upgrade or a new connection timely.
We inform customers who submit a request for a new connection or an upgrade directly at the time of processing the request whether we have to expand the grid first. In this manner, they know what to expect.
During the processing of a request we, and our contractors, keep customers informed regarding the planning.
Customers who are considering purchasing solar panels can check on our website whether there are voltage problems in their neighbourhood. In this way, they know in advance whether there is large likelihood that their transformer will automatically switch off when it is very sunny. We also provide tips here how to avoid and reduce voltage problems.
Shortage of personnel delays connections
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) published the new Code decision on the electricity connection waiting time for small-volume connections. We have to carry out new connections within 18 weeks. If no digging is required, a period of 12 weeks applies and, in the event of congestion, the maximum period is 52 weeks. We also expect a new code for large-volume users in 2024. Clarity about and predictability of the connection period are especially important for them.
The connection periods for small-volume customers are no longer realistic in our opinion. We are therefore appealing against the new code decision. The connection periods are based on historical figures and now often infeasible due to the huge increase in requests and a shortage of personnel. For the same reason - and because there is a shortage of materials - it is not possible to connect large-volume customers within the current period of 18 weeks. We do not expect a change in this situation in the short term. Not connecting customers timely can have financial consequences for us, for example, because we have to provide temporary solutions. It is difficult for us to estimate the cost of these temporary solutions.