The Dutch electricity grids seem to be half empty again today: TSO TenneT is making 9 GW of additional capacity available for non-firm connection agreements. This is huge: for comparison, the current peak demand on the Dutch grid is 19 GW.

The coming period should reveal which users will take advantage of this – certainly battery storage in part – but also how this will affect the lower grid levels (medium and low voltage grids managed by the DSOs), and if and how the colours on the notorious capacity map will change again.

In any case, it is clear that there is still an immense potential to be gained from better use of existing grids. New contracts, e.g. for non-firm capacity, (local) flexibility markets for congestion management and network tariff structures that ensure better utilisation are part of the toolbox.