Grid-Aware Area Development

Grid congestion arises when the capacity being requested exceeds what the grid can physically transport. In the Netherlands, several regions are now fully or partly allocated: new connections are being refused or placed on a waiting list.
The cause is the rapid growth of solar parks, wind energy, data centres and electric transport, combined with the long lead times for grid reinforcement. This directly affects project developers, industry and grid operators. Grid-aware new-build development means anticipating congestion issues and their possible solutions at an early stage of the planning process.

Congestion solutions run along two tracks.
Technical: smart charging, battery storage, cable pooling and energy sharing can flatten the peak load on the grid.
Market-based: participating in congestion management systems such as GOPACS allows parties to free up grid capacity in exchange for payment.
Krachtwerk analyses which approach best fits your situation and guides the implementation. Krachtwerk also provides oversight, along with stakeholder and project management, throughout these complex processes.

We guide both municipalities and project developers through questions around grid-aware new-build development.
For municipalities, we coordinate contact with the grid operator and make sure the right conversations take place there. Our work covers project management of grid reinforcement projects, stakeholder management and process optimisation.
On the project developer side, we provide analysis of flexibility options, guidance on GOPACS participation and support in finding alternative solutions for limited grid capacity.