A lot of space on the power grid for battery farms

A bright spot in the case of the overloaded power grid: TenneT has found a way to facilitate many new connections. Flexible users, such as battery farms and companies, can now be connected anywhere in the country.

9.1 gigawatts - without extra cables

TenneT has found a clever way to utilize 9.1 gigawatts of hidden grid capacity - without laying extra cables. That is enough for 40% of the peak demand in the Netherlands. The idea is to make use of the quiet hours on the power grid, such as at night or in the early morning. Consumption is much lower then, but until now this capacity has remained unused. TenneT wants to actively utilize these quiet moments with a new type of contract – a time-dependent transmission right (TDTR).

No data centers and factories

Data centers and factories run continuously and have little use for flexible power contracts. That is why TenneT thinks that large battery farms in particular will make use of the new scheme. They can store surplus solar and wind energy and feed it back in later, during peak hours. This way, demand is better distributed and fewer fossil-fuel power stations are needed.

Still too little space

Despite the enormous amount of power that TenneT is making available to customers on the waiting list, there is more interest in this new contract form than there is currently room for. In total, parties have submitted applications to TenneT for more than 70 gigawatts for a TDTR contract. The majority of these parties are large-scale battery farms, with some parties having submitted multiple applications, sometimes dozens.

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