If you’ve been planning to expand your business, electrify equipment, or install new energy systems, you may have already heard the bad news: there simply isn’t enough room on the electricity grid for everyone.
Across the Netherlands, around 14,000 farmers and SMEs are currently waiting for a new or larger electricity connection. In some regions, this can take as long as 10 years.
And this situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. Businesses are gradually moving away from gas and increasingly connecting renewable energy sources such as wind and solar to the grid. All of this puts additional pressure on the electricity network.
That raises an important question: how can your business keep growing if the grid has reached its limits?
In this article, we’ll take a look at the practical net congestion solutions, including local energy generation and energy storage, that can help your business stay operational even when grid capacity is limited.
But first, we’ll explain how grid congestion works so you can better understand the situation and the options available to your business.
Grid congestion occurs when the electricity grid cannot carry all the power being produced or used at a given moment. In other words, supply or demand temporarily exceeds what the system can safely transport.
To keep the network stable, operators must continuously balance production and consumption. When system limits are reached, new connections may be restricted, and businesses may not be able to export surplus energy.
This can place companies that want to expand their capacity on waiting lists until more room becomes available.
If you’re planning to grow your business or electrify equipment, the state of the electricity grid can make or break your plans.
In many parts of the Netherlands, the network is reaching its limits. Grid operators publish national capacity maps showing where there is still available capacity and where the network is already congested.
Where your business is located can determine whether your expansion plans can move forward. In some regions the grid is already full, and TenneT has warned that parts of Flevoland, Gelderland and Utrecht could even face connection stops if additional measures are not taken.
As expanding the grid takes years, this isn’t a problem that can be solved overnight. For many farms and SMEs in the Netherlands, grid congestion is becoming part of the reality of running a modern business.
Before making major plans for your business, it’s worth checking the grid capacity map for your region.
As the example above illustrates, large parts of the Netherlands are already facing limited grid capacity. Many regions in the north, east, and central parts of the country are particularly affected, with little or no room for additional electricity consumption or feed-in.
For most farms and SMEs, electricity powers daily operations. But when grid capacity becomes limited, it can quickly create practical challenges. Here are three that we often see businesses running into.
Many farms and companies are moving toward electrifying their operations. This shift is driven by the transition to cleaner energy and the desire to reduce dependence on gas following recent geopolitical tensions.
New machinery, production lines, cooling systems, charging infrastructure and heat pumps all increase electricity demand. But if the grid in your region has reached its limits, increasing your connection may not be possible.
Imagine a manufacturing company that wants to modernize its operations. The plan: replace several gas-powered processes with electric equipment, install charging infrastructure for an electric vehicle fleet, and add new machinery to increase production capacity.
But when the company applies for a larger grid connection, it turns out there is no additional capacity available in the area. Until the grid is upgraded, the business cannot fully electrify its processes or run the new equipment as planned.
As a result, the expansion stalls. Investments are put on hold, and the transition to cleaner energy is delayed.
Many farms and businesses already generate their own electricity using solar panels or wind turbines. On sunny or windy days, production can even exceed demand.
Under normal circumstances, this surplus can be fed back into the grid. But in congested regions, that isn’t always possible, meaning the energy you generate may go unused.
Think about how many processes on your farm or at your business rely on electricity, from ventilation and cooling to irrigation, automation, and digital systems. A stable power supply is essential to keep everything running smoothly.
When grid capacity becomes uncertain, stability can no longer be taken for granted. As a result, many businesses are exploring how to gain more control over their own energy supply.
Picture a poultry farm with several barns, each equipped with automated ventilation and climate control systems that continuously regulate temperature and air quality to keep the animals healthy.
Now imagine what happens if the electricity supply becomes limited due to grid congestion. Suddenly, the farm faces a serious operational risk, as these systems cannot simply be switched off.
Without a reliable power supply, animal welfare is at stake, and normal operations can quickly be disrupted.
So far, the outlook may seem discouraging. But a full electricity grid doesn’t mean your plans have to come to a halt.
Across the Netherlands, many farms and SMEs are finding ways to move forward by taking greater control of how and when they use power. By generating electricity on-site, storing it when available, and managing consumption more intelligently, businesses can reduce their reliance on limited grid capacity.
In practice, we see this come down to three strategies:
Producing energy on location allows you to cover part of your electricity demand yourself.
Energy storage helps you make better use of the electricity you produce.
Smart Energy Management Systems (EMS) help coordinate when electricity is used, stored, or exported.
Grid congestion occurs when the electricity grid cannot transport all the power being produced or consumed at a given moment. When this happens, grid operators may restrict new connections or limit how much electricity businesses can feed back into the network.
Grid congestion can delay business expansion, make electrifying equipment more difficult, and limit how much self-generated energy can be exported to the grid. In some cases, companies have to wait years before they can obtain additional grid capacity.
Yes. Farms and businesses can still generate electricity on-site using systems such as solar panels or small wind turbines. However, when the grid is congested, excess electricity cannot always be exported, which makes energy storage increasingly important.
Battery storage allows businesses to store electricity when production is high and use it later when demand increases. This reduces peak electricity consumption and helps companies rely less on limited grid capacity.
Many companies address grid congestion by combining local energy generation and energy storages. Technologies such as small wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries can help businesses produce, store, and manage their own electricity more effectively.
We get it: generating power locally, storing it, and managing it intelligently is easier said than done.
This is where Ecoways can help. We design integrated solutions that turn these strategies into something practical and achievable for your business or farm.
Depending on the situation, this may include:
Small wind turbines that generate electricity throughout the year
Solar panels that boost production during sunny periods
Battery storage that captures surplus power and makes it available when needed
By combining these technologies into a single system, businesses can produce more of their own power, reduce peak demand on the grid, and operate more independently from its limitations.
That leaves you with more control over your energy supply, even when the grid is under pressure.
Curious what that could look like for your business?