“Not everyone sees the potential of behind-the-meter battery storage yet. It’s striking how much attention goes to installing batteries with solar, and how little with wind farms. While the revenue model for batteries at wind farms is far superior to that of solar or standalone batteries.”
Rens Savenije, Commercial Director at Ventolines

What Does ‘Behind-the-Meter’ Mean?

The concept of ‘behind-the-meter’ refers to energy generation, storage, and consumption that take place behind a single grid connection — in other words, behind the electricity meter. This allows operators to control both the quantity and the timing of electricity fed into or drawn from the public grid.

For instance, during times of high grid congestion, sustainably generated electricity can be stored in batteries and later fed into the grid when there is more capacity available.

For grid operators and governments, this deferred load (load shifting) offers several advantages. It reduces strain on the grid during peak periods and helps to prevent grid congestion. This creates additional grid capacity, enabling more users to be connected.

The key advantage of the battery is that it avoids having to draw electricity from the public grid. In the Netherlands, all electricity consumers pay grid transmission fees. By charging the battery behind the meter — directly from the wind farm — these costly transmission charges are avoided. Additionally, the costs of the grid connection and contracted grid capacity are shared. For operators of behind-the-meter batteries at wind or solar farms, this leads to significant cost savings — especially at wind farms.

It is a smart combination of wind energy and storage that both optimizes wind production and provides financial benefits for the battery operator.Why Is the Business Case for Wind-plus-Battery So Strong?

The cost savings in the wind-plus-battery combination are greater than in the solar-plus-battery setup because wind farms have much higher full-load hours. This allows batteries to be charged more frequently from wind and transmission costs can almost entirely be avoided.

This is demonstrated, for example, by the 90 MW battery project Dronter Energie Opslag at Windplan Groen — a cluster of 11 wind farms in Eastern Flevoland with a total capacity of 515 MW. Ventolines supports the project behind the meter on the closed distribution system (CDS Groen). Een slimme combinatie van windenergie en opslag die de productie van windparken optimaliseert en tegelijkertijd financiële voordelen oplevert voor de batterij-exploitant.

Benefits at a glance:

• Connection Cost Savings
  The physical grid connection costs can be shared. Only one connection needs to be installed, and grid capacity is optimally distributed.
• Transmission Cost Savings
  By charging from wind, the battery does not need to draw power from the public grid, thus avoiding costly transmission fees.
• No Extra Grid Capacity for Consumption Needed
  Little to no additional grid capacity is required for electricity consumption, meaning that even in areas with grid congestion, the battery can still be installed.

Yet there are still few wind farms in the Netherlands with a battery ‘behind the meter’. An important reason is that provinces and municipalities do not yet have a policy for large-scale batteries. Because most wind farms are located in rural areas, the battery will also have to be located there. Planning cooperation for this is difficult to get off to a good start due to a lack of policy on the basis of which the permit application can be assessed.

A good example of where it did succeed is in Flevoland, where the Province has collaborated on three battery projects at wind farms through an experimental framework, in anticipation of their policy.

Windmills are rarely located on business parks; They are often on agricultural land. However, permits for battery storage on agricultural land are still hardly ever granted. (Visual fictionally generated with ChatGPT.)

“Windmills are rarely on business parks, they are often on agricultural land. However, permits for battery storage on agricultural land are still hardly ever granted. It would help the energy transition enormously if there were provincial policies that would make this possible. Also because the combination of wind and batteries can reduce grid congestion.”
Lisanne Saes, Beleidsadviseur Netinfrastructuur bij NedZero en Holland Solar

What needs to be improved in terms of policy?

In the 150-page draft Environmental Vision of the Province of Groningen (In Dutch), for example, the province of Groningen provides clarity about where large-scale batteries may be located. Not in the countryside. Existing solar parks are allowed to install a battery, but within the plot. Large-scale stand-alone batteries are allowed to be installed on five large industrial estates close to TenneT’s main high-voltage substations. And a subordinate clause states that a battery at a wind farm can only be built if it is located on one of these large five business parks.

However, wind farms are mainly located in the countryside and the distance to business parks is too great. It is unfeasible to place the batteries there. The Groningen Environmental Vision ignores the configuration that provides a lot of added value, and that is a battery at a wind farm.

Better and more should land in the environmental policy of provinces and municipalities. Battery storage at wind farms is a win-win situation for the energy transition. Both in the fight against grid congestion and for the wind industry and in the interest of the balance in our electricity grid. NedZero therefore argues for more policy support for this from regional and local governments. The current policy is simply still inadequate.