The energy transition and economic growth require more and more capacity from the power grid. In sparsely populated areas, for instance, many requests are made for solar parks. But also companies, industry such as data centres and horticulturists want to expand with extra transmission capacity. Currently, in many places, demand is higher than the grids can handle.

The energy transition is causing a massive remodelling of the energy system, with us using more and more electricity. Did you know that the number of heat pumps installed in 2023 will grow to 170,000? That's a 60% increase from 2022. This number will continue to rise to 300,000 per year. And if we look at charging stations, by 2023 there will be around 500,000 charging stations in the Netherlands. This number will grow to 2 million in 2030; that means 500 new charging stations a day. And companies are also moving away en masse from natural gas and asking for a (heavier) connection to the electricity grid.

There are now over 105 gigawatts worth of applications for reinforcements or new transmission lines for electricity purchase. That is comparable to over 150 times the capacity of Amsterdam! These are applications for large-scale batteries, for example, as much as 75GW. But industry, businesses, data centres, hydrogen factories and new housing estates are also looking to connect to the grid or increase their transmission lines. At the same time, rising energy prices and increasing climate ambitions are fuelling a surge in requests.

Adding up all these developments, they are happening much faster than we can realise grid expansions. The procedures and construction of a high-voltage substation or an overhead high-voltage connection, for instance, take years. Sometimes we are dealing with procedures that take up to 10 years, and then construction of 2 to 3 years is added to that.