Dutch energy supplier and DSO sign first ‘capacity restriction’ contract
The wind farm is located in the Dutch province of Groningen. Image courtesy Eneco.
Dutch energy supplier Eneco and DSO Enexis have signed a contract to free up capacity on the grid at certain hours and mitigate peak demand periods.
The Dutch companies are calling it the first ‘capacity restriction’ contract, which will see Eneco gear electricity supply from a wind project in Farmsum to meet the load on the power grid, a technique to avoid peak demand periods known as congestion management.
During peak moments, Eneco will temporarily reduce the production of this wind energy and Enexis will pay a fee.
The wind farm in question is Farmsum, located in the Dutch province of Groningen, which is connected to one of Enexis’s medium-voltage stations in Weiwerd.
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The station’s power grid, states Eneco, has virtually no room left for more capacity and through the contract Eneco will make the wind farm available to produce less electricity during peak moments, freeing up room on the grid.
This is the first time either Enexis or Eneco has concluded this type of contract, which has been signed at a time in the Netherlands when increasingly flexible means of managing consumption are being used to balance an at-capacity grid.
The wind farm has a total capacity of approximately 25MW; Eneco will make 10MW of flexible capacity available to Enexis to open grid capacity for connecting roughly 30,000 solar panels.
The contract takes effect on 1 September 2023. The contract has no fixed end date; it will remain in place until the local power grid has been upgraded.
Commenting on the contract in a release was Lucien Wiegers, director of Eneco’s trading division EET, who stated: “We are pleased to have secured this first deal with Enexis, and we expect to sign several more of these contracts, not only for our own wind and solar farms, but also for farms that we manage for others.”
Added Karin Mathijssen, director of large business customers at Enexis: “We are transitioning to an energy system where these types of flexible contracts are becoming increasingly important. At the same time, this is a new concept – not only for us, but also for our customers.
“I am confident that we will sign more of these types of contracts in the near future. To serve as many of the customers on the waiting list as possible, Enexis will continue to look for parties that can supply flexible capacity and that follow Eneco’s excellent example.
