Should you compare electricity to the sidewalk in front of your house (always there) or to strawberries in winter (more expensive than in summer)? According to Diederik Samsom, the answer is clear: when there is scarcity of electricity, it should be reflected in the price. Samsom was the keynote speaker at the conference on grid congestion organized by the Province of South Holland on July 10.
During the transition to clean energy, there is a much higher demand for electricity at certain times of the day. The electricity grid cannot handle this change: this is called grid congestion. The electricity grid becomes full, and large consumers cannot get new connections or expand. This applies to businesses, but also to schools, swimming pools, or community centers.
Provincial administrators outlined the effect of grid congestion on housing construction plans or on the sustainability of public transport. Deputy Berend Potjer (energy transition): If you think together with housing corporations, builders, and energy cooperatives about the problem before the construction project, you can do a lot.
New Collaborations and Follow-up
During the conference, various new collaborations emerged. For example, the municipality of Rotterdam and Bouwend Nederland are working together on conscious building. The province, the municipalities of Leiden and Rotterdam, and RES Holland Rijnland are also starting a collaboration to speed up construction procedures. After the summer, the province will organize a booster session to further assist the collaborations with knowledge and support.
Arjan van Zaanen from the Rijksvastgoedbedrijf spoke about a city battery that absorbs peaks in electricity use from government buildings.
The province also has an offer; for local energy hubs, we provide the Implementation Agenda Energy Hubs (opens in a new window). This helps us to facilitate collaborations between people and companies to share energy smartly and relieve the grid.
Not all questions had immediate answers, but these open issues provide valuable insights. The province continues to work to connect parties, make bottlenecks visible, and provide space for innovative solutions.