The expansion of the high-voltage grid in large parts of the Netherlands is facing years of delay. Expansion projects in Utrecht, the Flevopolder, and Gelderland are taking much longer than planned. As a result, companies, schools, and wind and solar farms will have to wait longer for a new or heavier power connection.
Robert Kuik, Director of Network Planning at grid operator TenneT, speaks of a “tremendously disappointing message” in a statement, writes press agency ANP. According to him, the projects are struggling with unforeseen obstacles: “lengthy procedures, complex location issues, and land acquisition that take much more time than we want.”
TenneT is working all over the Netherlands on reinforcing and expanding the congested power grid. Initially, the grid operator assumed that the aforementioned projects would be completed in 2029, but now it is 2033. But if there are more setbacks, it will probably be 2035.
The biggest problem is a high-voltage substation that needs to be built north of Utrecht. The construction of that station is crucial for the expansion plans in the aforementioned regions. Many possible locations have already been investigated, but they were all rejected. An important reason for this is that such a station, which is twelve football fields in size, cannot simply be built in an area around UNESCO World Heritage Site Dutch Waterlines.
In the meantime, a new location is being considered, near Haarrijn on the west side of the A2 highway. But that means another long investigation period. This location is also technically more complex, which means that the actual construction phase will take longer.
‘Major blow to customers’
“This delay is a major blow to the 1,500 customers who are already on the waiting list for extra capacity,” says Warmold ten Zijthoff, Regional Director Utrecht at regional grid operator Stedin. In the Flevopolder and Gelderland, thousands of companies and institutions are also on waiting lists at Liander.
The grid operators do not rule out that there may be further restrictions later on for the connection of, for example, new homes and charging stations. But so far, that is not the case.
This is not the first delay in TenneT projects and probably not the last. In April, TenneT already announced that some projects in Noord-Brabant and Limburg are taking longer than planned. The grid operator also issued a national warning that more projects may be delayed in the coming years. “We see that project planning is coming under pressure in more and more places.”