Grid Intelligence

A province full in both directions, where the constraint sits one layer up

Limburg is one of the most heavily congested provinces in the Netherlands, and unusually it is full in both directions at once: every service area Wattlas sampled on 5 July 2026 shows TenneT's transmission grid at its most constrained level for both off-take and feed-in. But the local Enexis stations are not the binding limit. In most areas the regional station has existing capacity above what current contracts need; what a new applicant runs into is the transmission layer above, which is full. This edition separates the layers: where the queues actually sit, why the Chemelot cluster is the demand engine, which single 380 kV node the structural relief hinges on, and why four accelerated projects still leave the province years out. A note on scope: Enexis is the regional grid operator for the sampled Limburg areas, with TenneT as the transmission operator above it, and in Limburg the transmission layer is where the story is.

Signal #1 Full in both directions on the transmission layer, with the heaviest queues in the south

Every Limburg service area Wattlas sampled on 5 July 2026 shows TenneT's transmission layer at its most constrained level for both off-take and feed-in. The largest off-take waiting queues sit in the industrial south and in Venlo: about 61.4 MW of requested off-take capacity is on the waiting list at the Maastricht (Limmel) service area, and about 43.5 MW at Venlo (Blerick), even though both stations list existing capacity well above their current contracted need. Feed-in is congested too, with queues around 15.2 MW at Venlo and 12.7 MW at Roermond.

The gap between "the station has capacity" and "you still cannot connect" is the whole point in Limburg. A site screen that stops at the regional station reads it as open; the transmission layer above is what actually gates a new connection, and that is a slower, TenneT-set clock.

Source: Netbeheer Nederland capaciteitskaart, sampled 5 July 2026. Figures are the map's published per-service-area existing, required and queued capacity.

Signal #2 Chemelot is the demand engine, and the Maasbracht-Einighausen 380 kV upgrade is the structural key

The grid feeding the Chemelot industrial cluster around Geleen is at TenneT's most constrained level in both directions, and Chemelot's electrification is the demand driving the largest single project: the upgrade of the Maasbracht connection from 150 kV to 380 kV, plus a new 380/150 kV station near Einighausen. The project is now named Maasbracht-Einighausen; Provincie Limburg, the competent authority for the project decision, records it as "formerly known as Maasbracht-Graetheide", the two neighbouring works having been consolidated into one project. The published planning puts planuitwerking at 2026 to 2029, realisatie at 2029 to 2033, and ingebruikname, the point at which capacity actually arrives, indicatively at 2031 to 2034. Provincie Limburg's own November 2025 record notes this 2031 to 2034 commissioning date has been known since the end of 2024, and that TenneT confirms Chemelot's decarbonisation can be served by this connection, so it does not depend on the separate third and fourth 380 kV circuits (indicative 2039 to 2043). The first formal moment to comment is the zienswijze on the draft project decision, expected in Q2 2027.

For an industrial or storage project weighing South Limburg, the honest planning date is ingebruikname 2031 to 2034, and even that is an indicative operator timeline rather than a commitment. Anything that cannot wait that long is a flexibility question, not a firm-capacity one.

Source: TenneT, Maasbracht-Einighausen 380 kV project; Provincie Limburg, project page (the rename and the Q2 2027 zienswijze), read 17 July 2026; Provincie Limburg, GS-nota zienswijzen investeringsplannen, 25 November 2025 (the 2031 to 2034 commissioning date and the Chemelot confirmation), read 17 July 2026.

Signal #3 Four projects were flagged for acceleration, and the province still faces years of delay

On 30 December 2025, TenneT named four Limburg projects for acceleration under the national agenda to tackle grid congestion: the connections Buggenum to Kelpen-Nederweert, Buggenum to Blerick and Buggenum to Boekend, and a new station at Einighausen that gains far greater capacity at 380 kV, the same node covered in Signal #2. In the same reporting, TenneT acknowledged that Limburg still faces at least five more years of significant grid-connection delays, against a backdrop of around 14,000 companies waiting for a connection nationally. The Einighausen station carries the same indicative 2031 to 2034 commissioning window.

Acceleration and a five-year delay are not contradictory here, they are the same message: the projects are real and prioritised, but the horizon is still long. A Limburg project plan should be built on the later date and treat any earlier delivery as upside.

Source: L1 Nieuws, 30 December 2025, reporting TenneT; the four projects are independently confirmed on TenneT's own project pages.

Signal #4 Enexis is building underneath, but the regional build-out follows the transmission timeline

Enexis announced on 31 October 2025 the largest network reinforcement in its history: 7 billion euro over three years, 42 new high-voltage stations, 130 station expansions and 15,500 km of new cable across its five provinces, including eight new stations in Limburg, among them Brunssum, Graetheide and Maastricht-West. On the capacity map, Enexis lists specific regional expansions such as extra capacity at Lutterade (2027) and at Blerick (2026 to 2031). But because Limburg's binding constraint is the transmission layer, the Enexis congestion studies for these stations are marked as taken over by TenneT, so the regional expansions relieve local bottlenecks without changing the transmission-set horizon on their own.

The regional build-out matters for local capacity once the transmission layer opens, but it does not substitute for it. Reading the Enexis station timeline alone would overstate how soon a transmission-constrained Limburg site can actually connect.

Source: Enexis, persbericht 31 October 2025; regional projects from the capaciteitskaart, sampled 5 July 2026.

What we are watching for #007

Three signals to watch heading into the next edition:

• The Maasbracht-Einighausen draft project decision. The zienswijze window is expected in Q2 2027 per Provincie Limburg, the competent authority; that is the moment the 2031 to 2034 commissioning window either firms up or slips, and it is the first formal opportunity to comment.
• Whether the four accelerated projects hold their pace. The gap between "accelerated" and "at least five more years" is exactly where a Limburg timeline lives or dies.
• The atlas moves north-east. Issue #007 takes the same layered method to Overijssel, where Twente industry and the Zwolle corridor sit under a different set of TenneT reinforcements.

Sources and confidence

Every MW figure on this page comes from the official Netbeheer Nederland capacity map, sampled 5 July 2026 and carrying that peildatum; existing, required and queued capacity are the map's own published per-service-area figures, distinct from a per-station congestion-study PDF. Each figure is stated with its direction: the 61.4 MW (Maastricht) and 43.5 MW (Venlo) queues are off-take, the 15.2 MW (Venlo) and 12.7 MW (Roermond) queues are feed-in. The Maastricht, Venlo and Geleen figures were re-verified against source in the July 2026 claim audit; the Roermond feed-in figure comes from the same map sample but was not part of that audit, so it rests on the single map reading alone. The both-directions transmission congestion is confirmed across every sampled area. The project timing was corrected before publication: the upgrade formerly named Maasbracht-Graetheide is now TenneT's consolidated Maasbracht-Einighausen 380 kV project, with ingebruikname indicatively 2031 to 2034, not the end-2027 target carried in earlier drafts and in an earlier version of our own Limburg region page; the correction is sourced to TenneT's current project page, to Provincie Limburg as competent authority, and to Provincie Limburg's GS-nota of 25 November 2025, which records that the 2031 to 2034 date has been known since the end of 2024. The four accelerated projects and the "at least five more years of delays" framing are single-source, reported by L1 Nieuws citing TenneT (30 December 2025), and are stated as such rather than as TenneT's own published words. The Enexis build-out figures come from Enexis' own press release of 31 October 2025; note that the 42 new stations, 130 station expansions and 15,500 km of cable are totals across all five Enexis provinces, not Limburg-specific figures, and none of them is a capacity (MW) figure. Enexis' ontwerp-investeringsplan 2026 is listed below as background only: it was not read verbatim for this edition and no figure on this page rests on it. All expansion dates, including Maasbracht-Einighausen (2031 to 2034) and the separate third and fourth circuits (2039 to 2043), are the operators' indicative timelines, not committed dates. Enexis is the sole regional grid operator for the sampled Limburg areas.

Sources

1. Netbeheer Nederland Capaciteitskaart
2. TenneT Maasbracht-Einighausen 380 kV project (the project formerly named Maasbracht-Graetheide)
3. Provincie Limburg Maasbracht-Einighausen 380 kV project page (competent authority for the project decision)
4. Provincie Limburg GS-nota, zienswijzen investeringsplannen netbeheerders, 25 November 2025 (PDF)
5. L1 Nieuws Deze vier Limburgse trajecten krijgen sneller stroomaansluitingen (30 december 2025)
6. Enexis Persbericht, 7 miljard euro investering (31 oktober 2025)
7. Enexis Ontwerp-investeringsplan 2026 Enexis Netbeheer (PDF)