Flex-e grant for flexible electricity use
Grant for companies and organisations in Dutch grid-congestion areas to install storage, conversion or buffers that shift electricity use.
Questa opportunità è attualmente disponibile in inglese.
Fund equipment that lets you use electricity at different times, such as batteries, heat pumps with heat buffers, hydrogen electrolysis or larger cold and heat stores. The measures must not worsen grid congestion.
The grant covers up to 40% of eligible acquisition, installation and investment costs. Own staff costs and ordinary operating, management and maintenance costs are excluded. The minimum grant is €25,000. The maximum is €300,000 across all your sites and connected companies, with lower ceilings of €50,000 for agriculture and €30,000 for fishing and aquaculture. De-minimis is government support awarded under the EU rules for small amounts of aid. Earlier support awarded under those rules reduces your remaining allowance and can reduce this grant.
RVO pays a 90% advance, in quarterly payments, and the final 10% after approving settlement. Put the measures into operation within two years after receiving the grant and use them in your business for at least four years. Request an extension from RVO if you cannot meet the two-year implementation deadline.
Eligibility
- Your organisation must be registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK). The funded electricity connection must be in the Netherlands, in a postcode area designated by the grid operator as having congestion for electricity consumption. It must be larger than 3×80 amperes, with a metering-company contract.
- You must hold the connection and transmission agreement (ATO) in your own name. If it is missing or outdated, attach an energy supplier, metering-company or grid-operator invoice no more than two months old when applying. A tenant without their own ATO cannot apply; the property owner holding it may be able to apply.
- Cooperatives, owners’ associations and energy hubs can apply with their own KvK number and large-user connection. Partnerships cannot apply. Municipalities and provinces are excluded; water boards can apply.
- Your main activities must not be energy generation, storage, energy trading or balancing services that match electricity supply and demand.
- Add the flexible power of all measures: this is the power you can increase, reduce or use at another time. Below 100 kW, no congestion-management contract is required, but you must declare that you filed the energy-saving obligation notification, which reports the energy-saving measures your organisation takes. For batteries and electric boilers use the power on the quote; calculate it yourself for other measures. A battery-only project below 100 kW must have at least 50 kW.
- At 100 kW or more, attach a congestion-management contract with your grid operator setting out how you adjust electricity consumption. A consumption-side CBC or CSC can qualify; an export-only contract, a contract only with a Congestion Service Provider, or alternative transmission rights do not. Software limiting the equipment’s power does not change its assessed technical maximum.
- A feasibility investigation is required for every measure. At 100 kW or more, preliminary research is also required. You do not have to use the subsidised Flex-e scan or feasibility study for this research.
- Charging points, compulsory energy-saving measures, renewable generation and generation or conversion using fossil feedstocks are excluded. Your measures must not increase fossil energy use or worsen congestion, and must serve only the connection in your application. Measures in the smaller power group must not be used mainly for energy trading.
- Hire a contractor that is independent of your company: you cannot do the work yourself or use a parent or subsidiary. The implementer must not have carried out your earlier flexibility scan or feasibility study, or be connected to the company that advised you on the measures.
- You cannot receive another subsidy for the same activity, including provincial, municipal or water-board grants. EIA tax relief can be combined. Apply for only one Flex-e component at a time in a round; a second component is possible after completing the first.
- Declare government support awarded under the EU de-minimis rules over the preceding three years, including this application; earlier support under those rules reduces your remaining allowance: the general ceiling is €300,000, with the stated sector ceilings for agriculture and fishing/aquaculture. You must cooperate with RVO’s programme evaluation.
How to apply
- Stato
- chiuso
- Apre
- Chiude
- Restrizioni del bando
- Both measure budgets are oversubscribed. RVO still accepts applications and processes them in order of receipt; funds may become available after refusals or budget reallocation.[^c13][^c27]
Apply through RVO’s digital portal with eHerkenning level 2+ or higher. Include the EAN identification code of the electricity connection and your ATO or qualifying recent invoice.
Attach a quote signed by both you and the contractor, conditional on RVO approving the grant, and a report explaining the expected effect on electricity flexibility. For measures below 100 kW, include a conceptual technical design showing how the measure works and the changes needed in your business. For 100 kW or more, attach the grid-operator congestion-management contract. Contact the grid operator early: obtaining this contract can take months. Complete the de-minimis declaration in the portal and attach any Flex-e scan or study funded earlier in the same round.
Begin implementation only after the grant is awarded. After completion, request settlement through Mijn RVO with a final report, photographs showing serial numbers and a board declaration of actual costs and revenue.