What is the difference between off-take and feed-in?
Off-take (afname) is electricity flowing from the grid into a connection, the direction a factory, data centre or EV charging hub draws power. Feed-in (teruglevering) is electricity flowing from a connection back into the grid, the direction a solar park or a discharging battery uses. Grid operators track and publish these two directions separately, because a grid segment's status in one direction says nothing reliable about its status in the other.
Source: Enexis, "Bijna 1.000 megawatt transportcapaciteit vrijgegeven".
Where has this actually happened in the Netherlands?
Brabant is the clearest documented case: TenneT released 264 MW of feed-in capacity on the high-voltage grid across West Brabant, Eindhoven and Tilburg in April 2026, with a further 632 MW expected once the new Geertruidenberg station opens at the end of 2026, over roughly the same period that off-take room was closing in other parts of the same grid. Utrecht shows the same split from the opposite side: a connection pause on new and heavier off-take connections applies in area 1a from 1 July 2026, while the province separately projects a 250 MW feed-in shortage by 2029, a different constraint on a different timeline. Zeeland adds a third pattern: an April 2026 recalibration released about 260 MW of off-take capacity, while feed-in congestion in areas like Walcheren Noord and the Noordring continued on its own, unrelated schedule.
Source: Wattlas Issue #002, Noord-Brabant; Stedin, provincie Utrecht.
Why do the two directions move independently?
Off-take demand is driven mostly by electrification of industry, buildings and transport; feed-in demand is driven mostly by solar and wind generation and by battery discharge. These are different physical loads on the same wires, so a grid operator can free up capacity for one without touching the other, for example by adding a technical measure that only helps in one direction, or by a wave of new solar connections filling feed-in headroom while off-take headroom is untouched.
Source: Stedin, congestie provincie Zeeland.
How should this change how a site or project gets screened?
Screen for the direction the actual project needs, not for the grid's general reputation. A data centre or factory expansion needs off-take headroom; a solar park, wind project or battery discharge asset needs feed-in headroom; some projects, including many batteries and flexible loads, need both, and should be checked against each direction separately rather than against a single blended status.
A site written off because "the grid there is full" may only be full in the direction the project does not need. Checking the wrong direction can both wrongly rule out a good site and wrongly clear a bad one.
Decision lens
Before ruling a location in or out, identify which direction (or both) the project actually depends on, then check that specific direction's status, waiting list and any recent recalculation. Off-take news is not feed-in news, and a headline status for a province rarely applies evenly to both.
See also: the glossary entries for off-take and feed-in, and the Netherlands grid monitor for the current status per region and direction.
This explainer is evergreen and updated if new documented examples change the picture. To respond or flag an update: [email protected].