Episode Details

Want the latest news, analysis, and price indices from power markets around the globe - delivered to your inbox, every week?Sign up for the Weekly Dispatch - Modo Energy’s unmissable newsletter.https://bit.ly/TheWeeklyDispatchThe energy transition faces significant hurdles across Europe - especially in the Netherlands. Grid congestion, high grid fees, and investment uncertainty are creating a logjam that halts crucial infrastructure deployment like offshore wind and utility-scale batteries. This episode explores how leading integrated energy companies are strategically evolving to overcome these barriers. Learn how balancing assets like flexibility, energy storage, and electron sinks are essential for building resilient portfolios and unlocking positive business cases. We explore innovative and pragmatic solutions, including non-firm grid connections and hybrid industrial electrification, designed to revitalize demand and accelerate the path to decarbonizationIn this insightful conversation, Ed speaks with Karen de Lathouder, Chief Operating Officer from Eneco, to unpack the core challenges facing integrated energy companies navigating the next phase of the energy transition, focusing heavily on market design, grid constraints, and innovative flexibility strategies across Europe.Key topics include:• How high network fees and grid overload are stalling demand growth and delaying major investment projects in the Netherlands.• The New Utility Plan: Moving beyond simply building wind and solar toward creating a balanced portfolio that integrates batteries, hydrogen and VPPs for asset optimisation.• How the Netherlands is building this balanced system by combining renewables with storage, hydrogen, and VPP-enabled flexibility.• Why new large-scale renewables rely on long-term power contracts (PPAs), and how developers are using colocation to secure offtake.• How flexible grid access contracts are enabling the next wave of battery projects.• How dynamic pricing is reshaping customer behaviour.About our guestKaren is Chief Operating Officer at Eneco where she oversees asset-based value chains, covering everything from heat and renewable power to flexibility assets like batteries, hydrogen, and electric heating systems (e-boilers). She provides an expert view on what it takes to manage capital risk and activate crucial power demand in the North-West European energy sector.About Modo EnergyModo Energy helps the owners, operators, builders, and financiers of battery energy storage solutions understand the market - and make the most out of their assets.All of our interviews are available to watch or listen to on the Modo Energy site. To keep up with all of our latest updates, research, analysis, videos, conversations, data visualizations, live events, and more, follow us on LinkedIn. Check out The Energy Academy, our bite-sized video series breaking down how power markets work.