Congested power grid causes problems for car wash
In many places in the Netherlands the power grid is overloaded. This causes problems for new companies. One of them being Carwash A2 in the town of Zaltbommel. They have installed more than seven hundred solar panels on its roof but have to wait years before they can actually put them to use.
Partly because of the shortage of electricians, upgrading the electricity grid in The Netherlands is going far too slow. The ‘overcrowded’ grid causes entrepreneurs huge problems. They sometimes have to wait more than six years before they can connect their new machines or solar panels.
In this particular case, the solar panels on the roof of Carwash A2 will probably not be connected until 2029. This means that the company has no use for them at the moment, because the current cables are too light for the amount of electricity that should be returned. “It’s incredibly annoying, especially because we had prior permission from the electricity company, but now the grid suddenly is at full capacity” Carwash A2 owner Roel Verhagen told a local website.
Group contracts
Companies could make agreements with each other to plan and distribute peaks on the grid to free up more capacity. This would require a group contract, but there is no legal basis for this yet in the Netherlands. The Authority Consumer & Market is working on making group contracts possible.
Meanwhile, grid operator Liander is working hard to increase the capacity of the grid. But still it expects the number of voltage complaints on the grid to increase in the coming years due to the growing number of consumers with solar panels.
“Unfortunately, the growth of solar panels is happening faster than we can expand the grid,” Liander said. According to the grid operator, consumers as well as businesses and institutions will have to wait longer for access to the grid and additional capacity in the coming years.
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