Dutch entrepreneurs warn of national electricity grid crisis, urge rapid action

Entrepreneur groups VNO‑NCW Midden (covering Flevoland, Gelderland, Overijssel and Utrecht) and VNO‑NCW Brabant‑Zeeland delivered a letter to State Secretary Jo‑Annes de Bat in Arnhem, calling the growing net‑congestion problem a "national crisis." They point to the situation in Utrecht, where from 1 July no new connections will be possible, and warn that similar lock‑outs could soon affect Overijssel and other economic regions, jeopardising high‑tech, chemicals, energy and logistics sectors.

The brief proposes three response routes: (1) smarter use of existing capacity through differentiated electricity tariffs and financial incentives for demand‑shifting, including the use of batteries and short‑term gas generators; (2) faster expansion of grid capacity by actively sourcing spare capacity from large users, adopting a crisis law to speed construction, and requiring grid operators to publish real‑time capacity data; (3) enabling local energy storage and peer‑to‑peer exchange on business parks, with regulatory simplification for “behind‑the‑meter” solutions. The entrepreneurs also ask the government to stimulate battery adoption by households and firms and to provide clearer information on remaining grid space so investments can be targeted effectively.