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Infrastructure costs

This page explains additional costs for the electricity and gas networks, as a result of your choices. read more

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Required additional infrastructure investments

  • High voltage network

    The high voltage (HV) network is used for the long distance transport of electricity, both within the country and for import and export. Large power plants and large industrial users are connected to the HV network.

    Building new power plants requires investing in network capacity. These costs cannot be avoided. The costs for the HV network are directly proportional to the generation capacity built.

    There is no distinction between the required investments for the different types of power plants, as this depends on generation capacity. The only exception is offshore wind turbines for which extra offshore cables are required.

    Furthermore, significant changes to the amount of electricity imported or exported will also incur network investments since extra interconnectors are required.

    In the chart you see the required network investments as a result of your choices in the section ‘Supply’.

  • Low & medium voltage network

    Households, buildings, agricultural users, and small industrial users, are attached to the low voltage (LV) and medium voltage (MV) networks.

    These electricity networks consist of cables (to distribute electricity to the various users) and transformers (to transform the voltage from high to low). Both cables and transformers can only handle a limited amount of capacity.

    The required capacity in the networks is determined by the number of users and the appliances used by those users. Technologies such as electric vehicles and electric heaters or heat pumps in particular significantly increase the required capacity.

    If the required network capacity exceeds the available capacity network infrastructure investments will be required to add new cables and transformers. It is in particular desirable to avoid investments in the LV network since these incur the largest costs due to the necessity to open up streets to place new cables.

    In the chart you see the required network investments as a result of your choices in the section ‘Demand’.