DTe Makes Availability of Production Capacity Transparent

Electricity generators which have production plant with a capacity greater than five megawatts must provide TenneT, the manager of the national high-voltage grid, with up-to-date information on the availability of this plant from 1 March 2004 onwards. This was decided today by the Office for Energy Regulation (DTe).

At present, producers are not obliged to provide information on the availability of generating capacity. TenneT requires this up-to-date information on the availability of production capacity in the Netherlands in order to maintain the energy balance (the balance between supply and demand). If TenneT does not have this information at its disposal, this could result in interruptions to the supply of electricity to consumers, while production capacity is still available to prevent this. In addition, TenneT may use this information to anticipate any shortfalls in production capacity in the future in good time.

DTe has also decided that TenneT should publish the available production capacity on its website. This will enable market players to make a better assessment of whether they wish to offer production capacity to TenneT to maintain the energy balance and, if so, at what price.

In 2002, DTe obliged TenneT to publish the total demand for electricity of the preceding day on its website on a daily basis. The decisions with regard to transparency can be obtained from DTe's website.