‘Governments must reserve more space for expansion of the electricity grid’ – IT Pro – News

The Dutch grid operator Stedin calls on national and regional governments to pay more attention to the lack of space for expanding the electricity grid. Stedin believes that more space should be reserved above and below the ground.

Stedin makes this call, because the acceleration of the energy transition, climate ambitions and economic growth means that the electricity grid must be expanded quickly. This means that space must be available above and below ground for, for example, extra (distribution) stations and routes of electricity cables.

According to the CEO of Stedin Group, Koen Bogers, people are increasingly faced with all kinds of scarcity, including ‘limited physical space’. He says this hinders the speed of the energy transition. That is why Stedin Group is calling on the cabinet, provinces, regional energy strategies and municipalities to pay more attention to the space needed for the construction and expansion of the electricity grid, together with network operators. According to the grid operator, reserving this space is necessary for, among other things, the construction of new housing estates, business parks, data centers and for areas intended for solar panels and wind turbines. This can shorten the total run time required to build a substation, meaning households and businesses can be connected faster.

The grid operator says it will build two to four large distribution stations per year until 2030, which is on average three times as many as before. In addition, Stedin says it is also taking steps that respond to limited space, such as the modular construction of distribution stations. These stations have a fixed design, so that the dimensions and the required ground are already clear in advance. That speeds up construction.

Stedin calls for more space in the context of the presenting its annual report† It states that in the past year the manager invested a record amount of 687 million euros in managing and maintaining the gas and electricity networks. In 2020 that was 620 million euros. So this is an increase of 11 percent. The goal for this year is to invest 719 million euros. In 2017, this amount was much lower and came to 494 million euros. Since then it has risen sharply; since 2018, these annual investments have invariably been between 600 and 700 million euros.

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