Grid Intelligence

Full in both directions, with a near-term exception and a 2035 wall

Overijssel is congested in both directions across its two demand centres, the Twente industrial region and the Zwolle corridor: 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. The relief is split in two. TenneT's new transformers at the Hengelo Oele station create room in the coming years, the one near-term opening. But TenneT also states that the areas west of Zwolle and the Enschede subnetwork have no room until 2035, behind a wall of structural projects that mostly land between 2034 and 2038. This edition separates the two, area by area, and flags where the grid operator boundaries matter. A note on scope: Overijssel is a three-operator province, Enexis for most of it, Coteq around Almelo and parts of Twente, and Rendo in the Steenwijkerland corner, so every claim below applies to the named operator's grid area only.

Signal #1 Both directions congested, with the heaviest pressure at Zwolle and Almelo

Every Overijssel 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. Zwolle (Weteringkade) carries the heaviest both-direction pressure, with about 28.4 MW of off-take and 29.3 MW of feed-in on the waiting list. Almelo (Mosterdpot) carries the largest single feed-in queue at about 39.4 MW, on a service area that itself sits on a Coteq and Enexis boundary.

Overijssel is not a one-direction story. A solar or battery project reads the feed-in queue at Almelo; an industrial or datacentre load reads the off-take queue at Zwolle. Screening the wrong direction here can rule a site in or out for the wrong reason.

Source: Netbeheer Nederland capaciteitskaart, sampled 5 July 2026.

Signal #2 Hengelo Oele is the near-term relief, the Enschede subnetwork the long wait

TenneT states that the areas west of Zwolle and east of Hengelo, the Enschede subnetwork, have no room on the grid until 2035, and that it expects to resolve that congestion structurally in 2035 through large-scale planned grid expansions. Those expansions do not all land at once: TenneT describes them as completing between 2027 and 2035, so capacity arrives in phases rather than in one step at the end. The one near-term exception is Hengelo itself: TenneT's new transformers at the Hengelo Oele high-voltage station create room in the coming years, and the capacity map confirms a fourth transformer at Hengelo 380 kV scheduled for 2027. Later come the Deelnet Enschede reinforcement (two new stations in the Enschede subnetwork) and a new Almelo 380/110 kV station, which TenneT indicates should be ready around 2035; the wider Twente reinforcement sits in the 2034 to 2038 window on the capacity map.

For a Twente project, Hengelo is the only place where the timeline is measured in a few years rather than a decade. Everywhere else in the subnetwork, a plan should assume the 2035 horizon, treat the Hengelo transformers as the exception rather than the rule, and read the 2027 to 2035 build-out as a phased release rather than a single opening date.

Source: TenneT, "Druk op Overijsselse stroomnet onverminderd groot" (the 2035 structural resolution and the 2027 to 2035 completion window); the Hengelo fourth transformer (2027) and the wider 2034 to 2038 reinforcement window are confirmed on the capaciteitskaart projects layer.

Signal #3 Enexis is building seven new stations in the Zwolle-Deventer-Twente corridor

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. For Overijssel, that includes seven new stations in the Zwolle-Deventer-Twente corridor. On the capacity map, Enexis lists specific regional expansions such as extra capacity at Zwolle Weteringkade (2030 to 2031) and Almelo Mosterdpot (2029).

The regional build-out is real and large, but it sits underneath the transmission constraint: it relieves local bottlenecks once the transmission layer opens. Reading the Enexis station dates alone would understate how long a transmission-constrained Twente site actually waits.

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

What we are watching for #008

Three signals to watch heading into the next edition:

• The Hengelo Oele transformer commissioning. Targeted 2027, it is the one near-term capacity increase in Twente; any slip removes the only exception to the 2035 wall.
• The Zwolle-West reinforcement. TenneT's own congestion-management study for off-take established the need for a new underground cable connection between the Zwolle Frankhuis and Zwolle Hessenweg stations, and that reinforcement sets the Zwolle-corridor timeline. TenneT starts the route study in 2026; on current planning the project itself is ready between 2035 and 2038 (TenneT project news). Note the distinction: 2026 is when the study starts, not when capacity arrives.
• The atlas moves north. Issue #008 takes the same layered method to Groningen and Drenthe, where the story flips: the north is feed-in-constrained where the rest of the country is off-take-constrained.

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. Each figure is stated with its direction: the 28.4 MW (Zwolle) and 9.5 MW (Enschede) queues are off-take, the 29.3 MW (Zwolle) and 39.4 MW (Almelo) queues are feed-in. All four were independently re-verified against source in the July 2026 claim audit. The both-directions transmission congestion is confirmed across every sampled area. The "no room until 2035" framing for Zwolle-West and the Enschede subnetwork now rests on TenneT's own project news rather than on a regional news report: TenneT states it expects to resolve that congestion structurally in 2035 through expansions completing between 2027 and 2035. The Hengelo 380 kV fourth transformer (2027) and the other TenneT projects are independently confirmed on the capacity map projects layer, so those are double-sourced. The Almelo 380/110 kV station is stated as around 2035, following TenneT's own statement; the capacity map carries a wider 2034 to 2038 window for the Twente reinforcement as a whole, and both are given rather than blended into one number. The Zwolle Frankhuis-Hessenweg route-study date has been through a full check and back: an earlier draft carried "route study starts in 2026" without a readable source, it was removed on 17 July for exactly that reason, and it is restored here because TenneT's own project news now carries it verbatim, together with a 2035 to 2038 completion window for the project itself. The distinction is kept explicit in the copy: 2026 is when the study starts, not when capacity arrives. The Enexis build-out figures come from Enexis' own press release of 31 October 2025; its ontwerp-investeringsplan 2026 is listed below as background only, was not read verbatim, and no figure on this page rests on it. All expansion dates are the operators' indicative timelines, not committed dates. Overijssel is a three-DSO province (Enexis, Coteq around Almelo, Rendo in the Steenwijkerland corner); each claim applies to the named operator's grid area only.

Sources

1. Netbeheer Nederland Capaciteitskaart
2. TenneT Projecten provincie Overijssel
3. TenneT Projectnieuws: Druk op Overijsselse stroomnet onverminderd groot
4. TenneT Projectnieuws: Flinke uitbreiding stroomnet Overijssel
5. Enexis Persbericht, 7 miljard euro investering (31 oktober 2025)
6. Enexis Ontwerp-investeringsplan 2026 Enexis Netbeheer (PDF)