Grid frees up room for some in Gelderland, not Utrecht

Since June, 224 organisations on the waiting list in the Flevopolder-Gelderland-Utrecht (FGU) grid area could be helped, State Secretary De Bat told the Tweede Kamer. In April the government and grid operators announced that the grid in the region had reached its limit. This is the first of their half-yearly checks on whether there is room for new requests.

Why it matters

• Around the city of Utrecht, households and businesses wanting a new or heavier connection must keep waiting.
• Housing projects that start building within 3 years can go ahead in all regions of the FGU area.
• Since 1 July, households and large consumers are treated alike, and no unused capacity is reserved for households.

In part of Gelderland (the Doetinchem congestion area), almost all applications with social priority could be helped this summer. There is currently no new room for other applications, which is similar to the rest of the country.

Around Utrecht (the Breukelen-Kortrijk congestion area) the shortage of grid capacity has shrunk. That matters for the grid's reliability, De Bat wrote.

Grid operators expect the grid around Utrecht and in southern Flevoland may be overloaded on the coldest days this winter. They will temporarily deploy generators running on renewable diesel (HVO) and mobile batteries to support it locally. The installations can be removed after a few months.

Applications with social priority, such as a fire station, hospital, school or housing, get priority across the Netherlands. There is a waiting list for new or heavier connections in almost the whole country. The government expects more room to open up across the FGU region as further measures take effect, to be released step by step for social-priority applications.