Dutch employers warn electric grid problems are harming investment
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AMSTERDAM(Reuters) – The main Dutch employers’ associations warned in a letter to parliament that problems including high electricity taxes and problems with the country’s electrical grid are discouraging business investment in the Netherlands.
The letter jointly authored by the union of major employers and the union of mid-size employers comes ahead of a parliamentary debate on Wednesday on grid bottlenecks caused in part by rapid growth in renewable electricity production.
“The Netherlands stands out in a negative sense on a number of points relative to its neighbours, but in particular on energy costs,” the employers’ groups wrote, noting that industrial production has now declined for 11 months in a row and more investment is leaving the country than coming in.
“It’s not so much that companies are departing in large scale, but their expansions and replacement investments are taking place outside the Netherlands due in part to the over-full electricity net, difficulty obtaining permits, and a lack of stable policy.”
The country’s regional grid operators are struggling to keep up with demand from businesses and housing projects in several provinces.
High-tension grid operator TenneT says new solutions are needed to cope with peaks and dips in electricity production from wind and solar sources, likely to pass 50% of the country’s total this year.
Talks for the Dutch government to sell TenneT’s German operation to Germany have stalled following Germany’s budget crisis, leading the Dutch government to give TenneT a new loan of 25 billion euros ($27 billion) this month to continue its grid investments in 2024 and 2025.
