Grid operator Tennet wants more large battery facilities to store renewable energy

The Netherlands needs more large battery facilities to store sustainably generated energy in order to guarantee power supply in the future, grid operator TenneT said in a report. TenneT expects to need 9 GW of battery capacity connected to the grid, effectively distributed across the country, by 2030.

The energy system is changing, consisting increasingly of renewable electricity and less of conventional generation from gas and coal, TenneT COO Maarten Abbenhuis said. “This will make the future system much more dynamic and less controllable. Storage is essential in a sustainable system. Batteries are an important solution to keep this system in balance in the future.”

In January, TenneT warned that the security of the energy supply will decrease from 2030 due to the volatile nature of renewable energy and the fact that power stations won’t be allowed to burn coal from that year. In the past decades, industries have been designed to consume constant power, a baseload. But an energy system based on renewable sources requires flexibility. “With 9 GW of batteries in 2030, a large part of the need for flexibility can be covered.”

But for that to work, it is essential that the batteries are effectively distributed across the country, TenneT said. It released a map of the Netherlands, showing per province how much storage capacity will be needed for system stability and where best to locate it. Provinces, municipalities, and market parties can use the map to anticipate the batteries for spatial planning and permit processes, TenneT said. “So that the battery storage can be deployed operationally as soon as it is needed to improve the efficiency of the electricity grid.”