The Cuijk, Haps and Boxmeer substations in North Brabant are part of the Limburg 150kV grid section and are therefore not included in this congestion survey. The expected congestion is caused by the growth of solar and wind production in North Brabant in the grid of the regional grid operator (Enexis) and TenneT. The resulting higher transport demand cannot be fully facilitated due to the limited available transport capacity in the high-voltage grid.
What is the contracted and available transmission capacity?
It concerns a meshed grid section in which the relationship between the capacity that has been contracted and the capacity that can be facilitated is not 1:1. When determining the available transmission capacity, TenneT also takes into account the simultaneity of the various types of generation and demand. In the North Brabant 150kV grid section, TenneT has assigned a limit to each substation that indicates the available transmission capacity. At present, the forecast contracted transmission capacity exceeds the available transmission capacity at the 14 stations listed below. Limited capacity is still available at other 150kV stations in North Brabant. It will be investigated whether application of congestion management in the North Brabant grid section can lead to an increase in the limits.
| Station | Provided contracted transmission capacity | Available transmission capacity |
| Aarle-Rixtel 150kV | 142 | 55 |
| Biesbosch 150kV | 37 | 13 |
| Boxtel 150kV | 89 | 30 |
| Breda 150kV | 91 | 56 |
| Etten 150kV | 155 | 122 |
| Geertruidenberg 150kV | 184 | 119 |
| Hapert 150kV | 349 | 142 |
| Helmond Oost 150kV | 144 | 35 |
| Helmond Zuid 150kV | 173 | 75 |
| Moerdijk 150kV | 324 | 200 |
| Princenhage 150kV | 48 | 40 |
| s-Hertogenbosch West 150kV | 78 | 49 |
| Uden 150kV | 198 | 45 |
| Waalwijk 150kV | 346 | 147 |
*Data supplied by Enexis. The stations Bergen op Zoom, Best, Eerde, Eindhoven West, Eindhoven South, Maarheeze, Oss, Tilburg West, Tilburg South and Woensdrecht are classified by Enexis as 'Phase 1', which means that there is limited transport capacity available for feed-in.
Grid planning
The structural solution consists of splitting the North Brabant grid into five grid sections, increasing the 150/380kV transformation capacity and upgrading and developing new connections. This concerns a large number of projects with mutual dependencies and different lead times. A project in the Zeeland grid section will make it possible to split the 150kV grid in Zeeland and Noord-Brabant in 2022 and to create additional space for transmission, mainly in West-Brabant. Expansion of the infrastructure will take place in stages at various stations. The splitting of the North Brabant grid into two parts will already solve a substantial part of the problem, to be completed in 2026. Ultimately, the expectation is that five different 150kV grid sections will be created, each with its own connection to the 380kV grid.
Research
TenneT is conducting research into the possibility of applying congestion management in the area referred to in Article 9.5, subsection 5 of the Electricity Grid Code.
