System operators, trade associations, and ACM sign definitive agreement on new regulatory method

System operators, representative organizations of network users, and the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) have signed a definitive agreement regarding the new method for determining the system operators’ revenues for the 2027-2031 period. With this market-wide agreement, all parties involved have chosen stability and clarity, so that system operators are able to focus completely on dealing with grid congestion and accelerating the energy transition.

In December 2025, the Dutch trade association of system operators Netbeheer Nederland, system operators Coteq, Liander, Enexis, GTS, Stedin, TenneT, RENDO, and Westland Infra, as well as trade associations Energie-Nederland, VEMW, Element NL, Vereniging Gasopslag Nederland, Energy Traders Europe, and ACM already reached an agreement on the new regulatory method. Over these past few weeks, all parties involved have worked out these arrangements in further detail. With the signatures of all the parties involved, these arrangements have now been finalized. ACM will incorporate these arrangements into the definitive method decision, and it expects to publish the definitive decision and the agreement on February 16, so that the tariffs of the system operators for the 2027-2031 period can be determined on the basis of this new method.

Manon Leijten, Member of the Board of ACM, adds: “This marks the first time that all parties involved have reached an agreement regarding the new regulatory method in this manner. This new regulatory method enables system operators to make all the investments that are needed for tackling the problems on the congested grid. In order to ensure that system operators do not incur more costs than necessary, system users will be involved more deeply when the system operators’ investment plans are drawn up, and ACM will asses those investment plans on a more substantive level.”

In this agreement, all parties involved commit to refraining from initiating any legal proceedings regarding the new regulatory method. The distribution system operators (Stedin, Liander, Enexis, Coteq, Westland, and RENDO) retain the right to make an exception for the part on the depreciation costs of the systems’ historical book value. This means that the distribution system operators still have the ability to request the court for a ruling on this part only. The parties involved did agree that this can only affect the mutual allocation of the costs, while the collective, allowed tariff revenues of the system operators remain the same.