New types of contracts provide extra capacity
During off-peak hours capacity is available on the electricity grid, for example at night. This capacity can be used, for instance, for charging electric cars and trucks. Besides grid expansions, we are therefore also looking at making smarter use of the electricity grid. To make this possible, as grid operators, we are working on contracts with alternative transmission rights and contracts in which we enter into transmission capacity agreements with various groups. Many changes are still required in laws and regulations for such contracts. We expect that we will be able to offer such contracts as from 2025.
Alternative transmission rights
By making use of contracts with alternative transmission rights (ATRs), we can connect more customers to the grid. Moreover, grid users that make use of alternative transmission rights benefit from a lower tariff. We distinguish two categories of ATRs: time-bound and dynamic contracts.
With time-bound contracts, we agree a fixed window of time with the customer. The customer will then be given extra capacity, for example, at night.
With dynamic contracts, we can limit the capacity for a maximum number of hours per year at times when we expect a peak in demand. Customers are informed no later than a day in advance in the event of such a limitation.
Group transmission agreement
More and more businesses on business parks are forming an energy hub to make more efficient use of energy together. They coordinate energy production, consumption, and storage together. In this manner, they can increase their sustainability and expand their activities if necessary. Energy hubs also free up grid capacity. We would like to support energy hubs with group transmission agreements. In such an agreement, we agree a maximum to be used transmission capacity with the energy hub. Participants in the energy hub coordinate among themselves how they are going to use this capacity.
As far as energy hubs are concerned, there is still a lot to learn with regard to the technical, organisational, and legal aspects. Enexis is involved in pilots in Almelo, Zwolle, and Hapert. Together with the participating companies, we are looking into how they can make more efficient use of the grid by coordinating demand and supply.
Convincing customers
More efficient use of the grid requires a fundamentally different way of making use of the electricity grid. The reality is that, as yet, we have not been able to convince large-volume business customers of the merits of our flex solutions. Therefore, we are going to approach customers more actively to inform and convince them of the importance of this way of using electricity. In addition, we also want to increase the awareness among everyone, both businesses and households, that energy must be used at times that it is abundantly available.
Dilemma: Customisation versus standardisation in flex contracts
In the past year, we learned a lot from all the meetings we had with customers to discuss flex capacity. One of the lessons learned is that offering customised contracts to individual customers is not the solution given the scale of this problem. The ratio between the available flexible capacity and the number of meetings we conducted is disproportional. We benefit from simple, easily understandable contract forms for the customer, which we can offer in a relatively short period of time.
In 2023, we concluded a number of custom contracts to assist customers. We are drawing lessons from this on how to best shape the standard contracts. Additionally, we have started offering fixed time windows on a small scale where space is still available. We see that customers are open to this. The shift from customization to standardization when it comes to flexibility contracts is a trend that we also observe among other grid operators.