Market RadarBESS & Batterijparken
Community Batteries in New Residential Areas: Fewer Planning Obstacles Amidst Grid Congestion
Minister Van Veldhoven stated that community batteries in new residential areas experiencing grid congestion can be installed without planning obstacles. This applies when the batteries are integrated into the district's design. Local support is a crucial factor, alongside spatial integration, management, and financing. This approach aims to foster local flexibility and housing development.
The Dutch government aims to accelerate the installation of community batteries in new residential areas, particularly in regions experiencing grid congestion. Minister Van Veldhoven of Climate and Green Growth recently confirmed to the Senate that these battery systems can be realized without the usual planning obstacles, provided they are an integral part of the new district's design. This position emerged in response to questions from the BoerBurgerBeweging, which questioned why local support was not explicitly mentioned in the assessment framework for community batteries.
The minister emphasizes that local support is an essential component of the consideration for the local integration of community batteries, alongside aspects such as spatial integration, management, and financing. By differentiating between existing and new districts, a path opens for innovative urban designs. In collaboration with the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, plans are being developed that account for local flexibility. This could lead to more scope for housing development, even in areas with an already saturated power grid, when community batteries make a valuable contribution to the design.
A request to advocate in Brussels for the relaxation of European rules for closed distribution systems (GDS) to enable private power grids in regular residential areas was rejected by the minister. She considers this unlikely to succeed and is exploring alternative methods to leverage the benefits of local cooperation, such as contractual group agreements between small-scale consumers and the system operator. The evaluation of experimental project networks by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) plays a role in this research.
Furthermore, attention is being paid to the further development of the Local4Local program, for which Energie Samen has submitted a proposal. Part of the subsidy has already been granted and runs until the end of 2028. The minister also advises vulnerable households with dynamic energy contracts to maintain a financial buffer, based on research by CE Delft and Motivaction.
These developments highlight the increasing importance of local energy storage and flexibility in the energy transition.
Source: Solar Magazine NL
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Talk to Oranje-Eco →This article is an Oranje-Eco summary of a report by Solar Magazine NL. Read the original: Solar Magazine NL.
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