New agreement makes sharing grid connection wind, solar and storage legally possible
Invest-NL, Ventolines and Energy Storage NL today published the Cable Pooling Agreement (CPO) with energy storage.
The Cable Pooling Agreement (CPO).
The CPO includes provisions for sharing a single connection for wind, solar and storage projects. The agreement covers all the necessary preconditions that must be arranged for this. For example, the agreement contains provisions on project realization, compensation, the relationship with the grid operator, metering, program responsibility, return regulation of installations, financing and liability.
Ventolines was asked by Invest-NL to write the CPO with energy storage. Rens Savenije, Business Lead System Integration at Ventolines: "Ventolines assists clients in the development, construction and management of renewable energy projects. In our work, we see and experience the social necessity and technical feasibility of cable pooling. But then initiators really have to be able to get started. To this end, we already made an agreement last year for the sharing of a single grid connection for wind and solar parks. Energy storage was still missing from this agreement. In the CPO published today, energy storage has been added."
Moving toward more efficient grid use
As client, Invest-NL was closely involved in the creation of the CPO with storage. Diederik Apotheker, [xx] at Invest-NL: "We see that solar and wind energy producers would like to get started with energy storage but still have many questions about how to do this. Invest-NL sees it as its task to help entrepreneurs with this. With this agreement we now provide the necessary tools to do this through one connection."
Energy Storage NL, the association for the Dutch energy storage industry, is pleased with the new agreement. Jeroen Neefs, industry manager Energy Storage NL: "We see that the Dutch electricity grid is becoming increasingly full. We must therefore work towards more efficient grid use. This cannot be done without the use of energy storage. We therefore hope that this agreement will ensure that storage technology is deployed even more in the Netherlands."
Elisabetta Aarts, Chief Legal Officer at Ventolines: "It is important to clarify that the legal framework for cable pooling can also be applied to storage. The Electricity Act 1998 now only mentions the possibility for wind and/or solar farms. Storage seems to have been overlooked."
Ventolines, Invest-NL and Energy Storage NL call on the legislature to put beyond doubt in the short term that cable pooling is also intended for storage.
The model CPO with energy storage is here download.
