Winter outages may be looming on overloaded Dutch power grid
The lack of capacity on the Dutch power grid could lead to outages in the winter, when the demand for electricity is very high, NU.nl reported after speaking to the grid operators. They said that outages would be “very exceptional,” but couldn’t be ruled out.
Enexis, for example, could be forced to switch off the electricity in parts of Tilburg, Den Bosch, Etten-Leur, Uden, and Ommen in “very exceptional situations” this upcoming winter. The demand for electricity in these regions is sometimes higher than the distribution centers can handle. If they become overloaded, damage can occur.
Enexis told the newspaper that it does everything it can to prevent overload. Switching off the electricity is the very last resort. According to the grid operator, it is better to switch off the electricity for a short time as a precaution than to have to repair damage. “People are then in the dark for a shorter period than in the event of a power failure due to damage to the distribution station.”
Stedin and Liander also called power outages very unlikely, but not impossible. Stedin is particularly worried about Walcheren, where Christmas-time tourists put extra pressure on the grid.
According to Jeike Wallinga, a lecturer in energy transition at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the overload on the Dutch power grid is due to households and companies electrifying. “More and more people are cooking, heating, and driving electrically.” That is necessary in the fight against climate change, but the Dutch “electricity grid is not designed for that.”
In the summer, a large supply of electricity from the increasing number of solar panels could overload the grid. “But grid operators can still solve that problem relatively easily, for example, by asking people to switch off solar panels,” energy expert Marien Boonman told the newspaper. In the winter, capacity problems are more complicated to solve. Situations can then arise in which more electricity is consumed than the power grid can transport.
These peaks in power use typically occur for a few hours per day, usually around the time people come home from work in the evening. The government is currently running a campaign urging people not to use power-intensive appliances like washers and dryers and not to charge electric cars during peak times.
