Dutch green energy company Novar has established its own grid connection for a solar park in the Netherlands,
Located within the province of Groningen in northern Netherlands, the Avermieden grid connection is a closed distribution system (CDS) that operates as a private network.
Sander Daniëls, Head of Realization at Novar and Avermeiden’s Project Director, told pv magazine that work on the project was developed as the local distribution system operator (DSO), Dutch state-owned utility Enexis, did not have the capacity to connect any projects that would feed power to the overloaded medium-voltage network.
The Avermieden CDS allows Novar to act as its own DSO instead, by connecting directly to the high-voltage grid belonging to transmission system operator TenneT.
The CDS consists of underground cables and a transformer station. It operates by transporting electricity from its connected assets via a 33 kV cable to the transformer station, where it is connected to an 8-km-long, 220 kV cable that runs from the transformer station to TenneT’s high-voltage substation.
“The power cable itself is designed on 650 MVA so that it can host significantly more than 200 MVA of solar assets,” Daniëls explained, adding that there is capacity in the system to develop up to three transformers in total.
The first phase of the Eekerpolder solar project, totalling 87 MW, will be connected to the GDS soon.
The solar park, a joint collaboration between Novar and Coöperatie Eekerpolder, is located across the municipalities of Midden-Groningen and Oldambt, with the Avermieden transformer station located in the middle. Once completed, it is expected to have a capacity nearing 200 MW, making it the biggest solar project in the country to date.
It is being developed in three stages, Daniëls said, with each phase of the solar park awarded SDE++ support in a different year of the Dutch renewable energy scheme. The solar park is due for completion next year.
It is envisaged that battery energy systems will be linked to Avermieden in the future, while other private companies may also be given the possibility to connect to the private grid system. Under existing laws in the Netherlands, the CDS must have no more than 500 users connected to its network, including no households.
A statement published by Novar explained that CDS Avermieden is designed to ensure supply and demand are continuously balanced by delivering electricity directly to TenneT when demand is high and storing excess energy in batteries when demand is low.
Daniëls told pv magazine that with the energy transition already at an advanced stage in the Netherlands, the grid connection also offers innovative solutions to new and ongoing challenges.
“This is a nice way to offer more sophisticated products that really tailor to the energy transition,” he said. “From both an impact perspective as well as from a financial perspective, you can really try to optimize your assets in order to make sure that you are mitigated from all negative business case impacts, such as the negative hour blocks.”
Novar worked with Dutch renewable energy company Emmett Green throughout the development of the Avermeiden project, as well as with a wide network of specialized partners.
In September, the Dutch government proposed amendments to its Environmental Decree to fast-track permitting for electricity transmission and distribution projects above 21 kV, aiming to expand grid capacity and ease congestion through to 2032.
Moreover, Dutch electricity transmission system operator Tennet is investing €13 billion ($15.1 billion) to expand the national high-voltage grid. The plan includes the construction of 40 new onshore high-voltage stations across every province.
In January 2019, Tennet and Enexis warned for the first time that there was extremely limited capacity for more solar in the provinces of Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel.
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