Grant for research into energy hubs

Under the new Energy Hubs Research (EHUB) grant scheme, €9.6 million is being made available for studies or assessments into the establishment or expansion of an energy hub. Applications may be submitted over a period of seven months.

The EHUB scheme forms part of the Energy Hubs Incentive Programme, for which a total of €166 million has been earmarked. The majority of this is earmarked for process support for initiatives via the provinces, and the amount will be distributed evenly across the years 2024–2030, according to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).

At present, there are around 450 energy hub initiatives under consideration, according to a spokesperson for the RVO. It is expected that this grant scheme will be made available more frequently in the future.

Energy hubs offer businesses the opportunity to continue to grow or become more sustainable whilst they await a higher-capacity connection, according to the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth in the Government Gazette accompanying the announcement of the new grant. Most energy hubs are established on industrial estates where new businesses are unable to set up or existing businesses are unable to expand due to grid congestion.

The EHUB grant is awarded for an in-depth study into the establishment or expansion of an energy hub, or for an exploratory assessment. An assessment provides insight into current and future electricity demand. Possible solutions identified by the assessment include energy generation or storage, demand response, or entering into a group transmission agreement (GTA) whereby companies share transmission capacity.

GTO as an important tool

From 2027, network operators will be required to offer a GTO, which Theo Scholte, spokesperson for Netbeheer Nederland, describes as a key tool for establishing energy hubs. At present, network operators are adopting an approach whereby “experience is gained and scaled up step by step”, according to Scholte.

According to him, energy hubs cannot resolve grid congestion in the short term, but they are “an important building block for the Dutch energy infrastructure as we move towards 2050”.

Tests and scans

For a study into the development of an energy hub, companies can receive a grant of up to €42,000, which may cover up to 70 per cent of the research costs. For a study into expansion, the grant is capped at €32,000 and covers up to 40 per cent of the costs.

The grant a company receives for an energy audit depends on how many companies take part. Indicative amounts range from €5,000 per audit when five or fewer companies take part to €8,500 for six or more companies. According to energy expert Marien Boonman, this is generally sufficient and it is fairly easy to carry out an energy audit.

According to Boonman, “hub studies often provide participants with valuable insights. Even if an energy hub is not ultimately established, the parties involved learn about various alternative solutions during this process.”