Stek has successfully represented Utility Support Group (USG) in its appeal against a dispute decision of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (Autoriteit Consument & Markt, ACM), the energy market regulator.
USG no longer wishes to manage its 150 kV grid on the Chemelot site and requested TenneT, the transmission system operator, to take over the ownership and management of this grid. TenneT refused to do so, as a result of which a dispute procedure ensued.
In its dispute decision, the ACM held that TenneT was not obliged to take over the 150 kV grid at the Chemelot site, because this grid would not belong to the national high-voltage grid.
The Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (het College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven, CBb) sided with USG and ruled that the 150 kV grid is part of the national high-voltage grid. The CBb considered that only the voltage level (110 kV or higher) is relevant in assessing whether a grid is part of the national high-voltage grid. The reliability and efficiency criterion as used by the ACM in the dispute decision is deemed in violation with the Dutch Electricity Act 1998 and European law.
Click here for the CBb’s press release, here for the judgment of the CBb and here for the press release of the ACM.
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