Focus on Energy 2025: ACM focuses on dealing with grid congestion, consumer protection, and a fair distribution of the grid costs

In 2025, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) will focus on dealing with grid congestion, conducting oversight over energy suppliers, and ensuring a fair distribution of the costs for upgrading and expanding the grid. This has been explained in ACM’s ‘Focus on Energy’ for the upcoming year. ACM’s Focus on Energy is a supplement to ‘ACM’s focus areas for 2025’, which was published on 5 February 2025.

Manon Leijten, Member of the Board of ACM, explains: “As regulator of the energy market, we are doing everything we can to mitigate the problem of an overloaded grid. It is important that we free up more capacity on the grid, and that we make sure costs are fairly distributed over all grid users. In order to protect consumers, we conduct strict oversight over energy suppliers, and we take action against misleading customer-recruitment practices and unreasonable prices. In that context, we pay extra attention to vulnerable households. Consumer confidence in the market helps accelerate the energy transition.”

Dealing with grid congestion

One of the biggest challenges for the energy transition is the shortage of transmission capacity on the grid. In 2024, ACM adopted a broad set of measures to create more capacity on the existing grid in the short term. In 2025, ACM will monitor the effects of these measures. Where necessary, ACM will take enforcement action in order to ensure that system operators and grid users use the existing opportunities as efficiently as possible.

In order to create more transport capacity on the existing grid, ACM together with the Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth (KGG) will investigate how the grids can handle a heavier load in a responsible manner. In addition, ACM will determine a feed-in tariff for large producers, with which they will pay for their grid utilization. This is meant to lead to a more efficient utilization of the grid, and to a reduction of grid congestion. In addition, ACM makes group transport agreements possible, thereby allowing businesses to share transport capacity.

Consumer protection

In order to protect consumers, ACM conducts strict oversight over energy suppliers. ACM takes action against misleading practices, unreasonable contractual conditions, and unreasonable prices. ACM investigates complaints filed by consumers about, for example, unclear final bills and misleading customer-recruitment practices, and confronts suppliers with these complaints if they are found not fully compliant.

Businesses that have applied for licenses for supplying natural gas and/or electricity to consumers or other small-scale users are carefully screened. With regard to suppliers that already have licenses, their financial and organizational stability is continuously monitored by ACM. With its monthly Monitor on the consumer energy market, ACM offers insight into price trends. ACM also checks whether the origin of electricity is correctly presented on power disclosure labels, and ACM evaluates the rules regarding early-termination fees.

In order to protect households that are connected to heat networks against too high prices, ACM sets the maximum heat rates on the basis of a statutorily prescribed formula. In addition, ACM in 2025 will conduct another study into the financial returns of heat suppliers. ACM takes enforcement action against suppliers that operate without the mandatory license or that do not comply with the Dutch Heat Act.

Fair distribution of the grid costs

The transport tariffs that households and business must pay will go up substantially over the next few years because system operators have to make major investments to upgrade and expand their grids. Each year, ACM sets the tariffs of system operators, and makes sure that all necessary costs are fairly distributed over all grid users. In 2025, ACM will be working on a new regulatory method where system operators will have certainty in advance regarding the compensation of their costs, rather than afterwards. This will offer system operators more certainty regarding their investments, and allows ACM to step in sooner, if necessary. This new regulatory method is slated to take effect in 2027. In addition, ACM in 2025 will develop new tariff structures that will help towards a more efficient grid utilization, including the previously mentioned feed-in tariff for electricity producers as well as a tariff for the offshore grid. ACM also actively participates in the harmonization of grid tariff structures within Europe in order to safeguard a level playing field.