14,000 businesses are waiting for power – BIC knows what's needed

While 14,000 companies across the Netherlands are currently on a waiting list to connect to the electricity grid, Brainport Industries Campus (BIC) in Eindhoven is demonstrating that solutions do exist. Through smart energy management and close cooperation between the government, grid operator, developer, and the business community, BIC can guarantee energy security for new tenants even in times of network congestion.

In her letter to parliament yesterday, Minister Sophie Hermans (Climate and Green Growth) called for “all possibilities to be exploited to the maximum” to solve the power grid congestion, including variable tariffs and possible temporary disconnections. “The situation on the power grid has fundamentally changed,” Hermans writes. “There are no easy solutions anymore. This gives reason to fundamentally review existing working methods.”

Smarter use of existing capacity

That is exactly what Brainport Industries Campus is doing. BIC Utility BV, a collaboration between Equans and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), has developed an energy concept that matches supply and demand in real time. Energy buffers, monitoring, and smart congestion management are used to smooth out peaks and fill troughs, ensuring that available capacity is used optimally.

“The connection of Cluster 2 is in line with the schedule discussed with Enexis,” says Ruud Vleugels, director on behalf of Equans at BIC Utility. “We are proving here that it is possible: with smart energy management, companies can continue to grow, even without additional grid capacity.”

The concept ensures energy for the approximately fifty current tenants of Cluster 1 and forms the basis for the development of Cluster 2, which is scheduled to begin in 2026. At BIC, companies receive energy on a ‘pay per use’ basis, with security of supply contractually guaranteed.

From policy ambition to practical example

In her letter to parliament, Minister Hermans emphasizes that the cabinet must “make maximum use of all possibilities” to offer short-term prospects to companies on the waiting list. She refers to flexible use of the grid as “an essential part of the energy system of the future.”

That flexibility is exactly what BIC has been saying it will apply since it opened in 2019. The campus has 6,600 solar panels, heat and cold storage, heat pumps, and a smartly controlled internal distribution network. The combination of local generation, buffering, and control prevents BIC from further increasing the pressure on the regional grid.

“We are demonstrating that cooperation works,” says Niels Dusee, director of SDK Vastgoed, the campus developer. “The municipality, province, grid operator, and market parties are working together here. This allows us to expand, become more sustainable, and offer our companies certainty.”

Energy as a prerequisite for growth

The urgency is great. According to the letter to parliament, the number of large consumers on the waiting list has risen further in recent months to around 14,000 applications, and Hermans warns that the queue “will only get longer” if no changes are made.

BIC sees itself as a test site for the energy system of the future, in which decentralized generation, flexibility, and cooperation are central. This vision fits in with the three lines of action adopted by the cabinet: Faster Construction, Better Utilization, Smarter Insight. “Our approach gives concrete substance to these three lines,” says Vleugels. “We build faster, use better, and do so based on data and insight.”

Role model for the Netherlands

With 225,000 square meters, BIC Cluster 2 will be three times the size of the first cluster. The campus houses high-quality manufacturing companies that share not only facilities (such as energy) but also knowledge, data, and energy. Within five years of its opening, BIC acquired the status of national importance due to its strategic significance for the Dutch high-tech industry.

“The minister's message is clear: there are no easy solutions,” concludes Dusee. “But at Brainport Industries Campus, we are showing that smart collaboration and technology can make a difference. The energy crisis calls for action, not waiting.”