DTe Approves Major Investment by TenneT in Electricity Grid

The manager of the National high-voltage grid, TenneT, will invest EUR 45 million in condenser banks and coils for generating and/or compensating for reactive power. The Office of Energy Regulation (DTe) gave its approval for this today.

Reactive power is necessary to keep the voltage on the electricity grid at the right level so that electricity can be transmitted. Without sufficient reactive power, TenneT cannot ultimately exploit the interconnector capacity (the capacity of cross-border electricity connections). There is a need for reactive power because the exchange of electricity with other countries has increased due to the liberalisation of energy markets in Europe. This makes higher demands on TenneT's grid because electricity contracted abroad is transmitted across TenneT's high-voltage grid. The optimal use of interconnector capacity promotes the operation of market forces because the opportunities for contracting electricity abroad can be exploited fully.

The total investment and maintenance costs amount to EUR 45.6 million. This amount is financed from the revenues from the auctioning of interconnector capacity. DTe is authorised to decide how the proceeds of the auction should be used.

For more information about this press release, journalists may contact our press officers: Saskia Bierling or Barbara Roest, tel. +31-(0)70 3303320/3362 or +31-(0)6-51387468 / +31-(0)6-22793063 (outside office hours) or at pers [at] acm [punt] nl (pers[at]acm[dot]nl).  

If you are not a journalist, but have questions about this press release, kindly contact the NMa/DTe Information Line, tel. +31-(0)70 3301306 or send an email to info [at] acm [punt] nl (info[at]acm[dot]nl).