Dutch power and gas supplier Liander revealed this week that residential PV system owners experienced three times as many curtailment events in the first half of 2023 than they did in the same period last year in the provinces of Gelderland, Noord-Holland, Flevoland, Friesland, and Zuid-Holland.

Liander reported an increase in curtailment events from 1,074 in the first half of 2022 to 3,476 in the same period this year, with Gelderland and Noord-Holland being the most affected regions. Liander said it expects curtailment to rise further as more PV systems are installed, particularly with the phase-out of the net-metering scheme in 2025.

To alleviate grid pressure, Liander recommended residential prosumers to use high-energy appliances during peak hours when solar power is readily available.

In 2022, the Netherlands added approximately 2 GW of new residential solar capacity, and the growing grid constraints pose challenges for the increasing capacity of solar installations in the coming years.

Liander has implemented various measures to address grid constraints, including the deployment of large transformers and congestion management strategies.

A new report by Netbeheer Nederland projects that the Netherlands could achieve a total installed solar capacity of 100 GW to 180 GW by 2050, with residential PV contributing 55% of the maximum peak on the grid by 2040.

As of June 2022, the Netherlands had a cumulative installed PV capacity of 16.5 GW, with 3,803 MW installed in 2021 and 3,882 MW installed in 2022, according to CBS, the nation's statistics agency.