In 2024, a year of economic and (geo)political challenges, including political change in the Netherlands and the end of the ‘Ampelkoalition’ in Germany, TenneT invested €10.6 billion in projects for onshore and offshore grid expansion – a 38% increase compared to 2023.
Major efforts were made in 2024 for projects on land and at sea. Examples include the start of production of cables for two of the new 2 GW offshore connections, BalWin4 and LanWin1, as well as milestones being met on important onshore projects in Germany, such as SuedLink and SuedOstLink, and the commissioning of “Wahle-Mecklar” – Germany’s longest AC project. Extensive work has also been done to expand the capacity of the Dutch onshore and offshore electricity grid. Southwest 380 kV (onshore) and IJmuiden Ver Alpha and Beta, and Hollandse Kust west (offshore) are notable major projects.
While the delivery of multi-year projects varies greatly from year to year, TenneT’s investment projects will provide a large amount of additional onshore grid capacity in the coming years – some 4800 km of overhead connections and almost 3800 km of underground power cables. Offshore, the company is working on fourteen large scale offshore wind grid connection projects that will lead to the expansion of connection capacity from 12.2 GW now to 42.4 GW in 2031.
Despite the challenge of integrating over 50% on average of renewable energy sources into the grid, and during times of intensive grid expansion and maintenance, TenneT Netherlands and TenneT Germany achieved a high grid availability, of respectively 99.99988% (110-150 kV and 220-380 kV grids) and 100% (220-380 kV grids), delivering on its core mission to deliver a stable and secure supply of electricity.
Focus on congestion, affordability, and energy-security
In 2024, TenneT continued expanding the grid while focusing on energy-security, affordability, and solving grid congestion. The company worked closely with regional grid operators and governments in the Netherlands to reduce grid congestion and waiting times for new connections. For the whole of Germany preliminary estimates indicate that redispatch costs in 2024 will significantly drop to € 2.6 billion. This significant decrease is due to decreased electricity market prices, but also because of the commissioning of new onshore electricity connections, reducing the need for curtailment of renewable electricity generation. In the Netherlands, the regulator ACM approved time-based and time-block contracts, allowing customers to pay reduced transmission tariffs in exchange for flexible grid use. TenneT signed its first such contract with a battery operator, where batteries store energy during hours with little demand and high electricity generation from wind and sun and supply it back to the grid during peak demand.
Cost vs benefit
Several studies have found that, despite rising costs, the social benefits of grid investments far outweigh the costs of those investments. Nevertheless, in its domestic markets, the Netherlands and Germany, consumers and businesses are currently navigating the ongoing reality of higher costs and energy bills, fuelling the conversation about the affordability of the energy transition, energy-security, and energy-independence. To address these legitimate concerns, TenneT is required to make investments of unprecedented scale in grid expansions in both countries until 2034.
Organisation
To have an organisational structure in place for potential investor participation in TenneT Germany, TenneT transformed itself, as of 1 January 2025, into two independent, national TSO organisations, TenneT Netherlands and TenneT Germany, co-operating in one group, TenneT Holding. In 2024, TenneT and the Dutch state agreed two shareholder loan facilities totalling € 44 billion to safeguard the financing of TenneT’s planned investments in the Netherlands and Germany up to and including 2026.
