Additional Grid-E Aspects

• Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland – Netherlands Enterprise Agency
• TenneT TSO – Dutch transmission grid operator

The Netherlands has nine DSOs, of which six are active in the mainland Netherlands and three on the Caribbean Dutch islands (one DSO per island).

Sources: https://www.netbeheernederland.nl/onze-leden; 2020 DSO facts and figures Eurelectric; Distribution System Operator Observatory 2020; https://cdn.eurelectric.org/media/5089/dso-facts-and-figures-11122020-compressed-2020-030-0721-01-e-h-6BF237D8.pdf

Smart meter penetration rate
-    LV-level: 2024: 90%
-    MV-level: is not measured. Connections of ≥ 3 x 80A (55kW) are by law equipped with a ‘telemetry-large-consumer-metering-unit’, but not all these metering units are smart metering units.

Policies for the digitalisation of the electricity grid

Dutch policy aims at a high level of digitalisation of the electricity grid, using and comparing consumption and (decentralised) production data to ballans the grid and mitigate (local) grid congestion. This recently led to the introduction of a new platform and a new entity:

• GOPACS: a national trading platform for local congestion-management
• CSP: Congestion Service Provider: an entity collecting congestion-management offers from among others, energy communities and active consumers

Furthermore the following entities and provisions will be introduced in the new Dutch Energy Law (expected introduction 2025):

• Energy Community:  a legal entity , which is allowed to produce, consume, store sell and share energy among its member and which is effectively controlled by members or shareholders that are natural persons, local authorities, including municipalities, or small enterprises, 
• Active Customer: a final customer, or a group of jointly acting final customers, who consumes, stores, sells or shares electricity generated within its premises located within confined boundaries
• Aggregator: an entity collecting data to optimise local production, consumption and storage and trade aggregated flexibility on the different energy markets

Specific rules for islands, isolated grids, microgrids, local grids, etc.
There are no specific rules on this topic. 

Total number of active electricity nationwide suppliers: 52 

Switching rates for electricity household customers: switching rates are only allowed when the switching conditions are clearly communicated before the singing of the supply contract; (Electricity Act 1998, art. 95m, sub 3) 

External switching activity on the whole electricity retail market in the Netherlands was 18,7 % in 2018 

Source: Monitoring Report on the Performance of European Retail Markets in 2018. CEER Report

How does the tariff methodology account for the deployment of RES?

The tariff methodology does not account for RES deployment. Yet for 100% feed-in connections separate connection tariffs are determined. These tariffs are significantly lower than those for the standard (supply) connections. 

• For example: for a  3 x 35A  100% feed-in connection in a region covered by the DSO Stedin the annual connection tariff is € 99, whereas the annual tariff for a standard 3 x 35A connection is  € 2.028. For feeding-in over standard connection no additional fee is due. The transport tariffs for feed-in is restricted to the fixed fee, no transport dependent fee is due as this transport tariff is due by the consumer, not the producer.

How does the tariff methodology adapt to islands, microgrids, local grids, etc.?

The tariff methodology is similar for the European Dutch islands, microgrids, local grids, etc., except for Closed Distribution Systems.

For the Caribbean Dutch islands a separate tariff scheme is formulated. Feed-in of locally produced renewable electricity is allowed, provided that the renewable electricity produced is mainly used by the producer. 100% feed-in connections are therefore not foreseen for final consumers. 100% feed-in connections are only provided for production plants, having a production permit.

Are there any policies being produced to account for such developments?

The large-scale implementation of renewable energy power plants is causing a number of grid problems. The intermittent and time dependent character of renewable electricity production from wind and sun is causing significant transport and congestion problems. To mitigate these problems the ACM (the Dutch regulatory authority), the TSO and the DSOs are investigating transport tariff differentiation. Two options are being investigated:

• Time dependent tariffs to stimulate shift of electricity transport toward periods with less transport or congestion problems
• Grid level dependent tariffs to stimulate use of the low voltage grid level only by direct local use of locally produced electricity.

https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/transporttarieven-en-elektriciteitsopslag

https://www.acm.nl/nl/publicaties/onderzoek-naar-de-flexibilisering-van-nettarieven

Are there existing caps for RES installed capacity in the network?

No formal caps; current caps are the consequences of lack of transport capacity in the Network and address all forms of production capacity. A specific cap for RES capacity comes from the SCE- and SDE subsidy schemes, requiring that PV power plants are connected to the grid with connection capacity of 50% or less of the total installed PV peak-power.

What are the curtailment rules for RES generation? 

Curtailment of RES installed capacity follows the EU directive curtailment rule. Furthermore, curtailment occurs automatically in case the voltage in a specific area exceeds the cut-off value of the converter of the RES production system.

Who is responsible for voltage balancing, frequency reserve, unit dispatching, electrical system management?

TSO TenneT.

Who has access to metering data? 

The DSO, who provides these data to the supplier.