TenneT delivers 2023 results with a record high of EUR 7.7 billion in grid investments coping with grid congestion and bottlenecks.

• Record investements 70% higher than in 2022 to expand, strengthen and modernise critical onshore and offshore electricity infrastructure.
• Solid financial results with EUR 1,817 million underlying EBIT up 50.2% year-over-year.
• Substantial workspace increase to 8,336 employees while TenneT aims to grow continued infrastructure investments faster than its workforce through innovations.
• Solid financing position. The Dutch state provided EUR 1.6 billion to cover Dutch grid funding requirements and a loan facility of EUR 25 billion, safeguarding planned investments in the Netherlands and Germany for 2024 and 2025 and bridging the time to completion of the sale of TenneT Germany.
• Grid congestion and outstanding customer connection requests in the Netherlands remain an issue addressed through the National Grid Congestion Action Plan (LAN) and unorthodox measures with which TenneT operates the grid at its limits.
• Grid bottlenecks in Germany causing curtailment of offshore windfarms addressed by accelerating legislation and its implementation for earlier licensing and better planning.

Against a backdrop of geopolitical tension and disrupted supply chains, TenneT continued its solid performance in 2023 partly thanks to entering into long-term partnerships.Grid availability remained at world-class level with 99.99993%, while massively expanding high-voltage grids onshore and offshore in the Netherlands and Germany. Looking to 2024 and beyond, achieving a reliable, climate-neutral, and affordable energy system by 2045 remains TenneT’s key guiding principle in everything it does. The successful execution of the investment agenda required for this network of the future is dependent on a stable and consistent energy policy, which allows for a long-term planning horizon and a stable supply chain.

Manon van Beek, CEO TenneT:

“Increasing electrification continues to drive a strongly growing demand for transmission and connection capacity. TenneT is doing all it can to increase grid capacity by placing great emphasis on speed and delivery of our growing investment portfolio translated into hundreds of projects. Our focus is primarily on build, build, build. In doing so, we must ensure realism and transparency in feasibility, delivery, and affordability. This will have an impact on timing and execution. TenneT’s investments in in the grid are not just about affordability today; they are about long-term affordability and energy security for households and a competitive industry.”

While TenneT invested EUR 7.7 billion in 2023 (Netherlands EUR 2.9 billion and Germany EUR 4.8 billion), annual investments will grow to at least EUR 10 billion. The sharp increase in investments in 2023 is due to higher investments in onshore and offshore grid expansions, such as the 2GW Program. TenneT's 10-year investment plan for the period 2024-2033 adds up to EUR 160 billion.

 

Over the year, underlying revenues decreased by EUR 0.6 billion to EUR 9.2 billion, driven by the decline in ancillary service costs. These originate in lower market prices for costs incurred by TenneT, to compensate for grid losses, to maintain the energy balance in the grid, and to pay for alternative electricity routes in case of congested or unavailable grid sections. As ancillary services require TenneT to buy electricity, the cost is directly related to the drop in electricity prices following the surges seen in 2022. Increased revenues from a growing regulatory asset base and increased regulatory reimbursements due to rising interest rates only partly offset this decrease.

Underlying operating result (EBIT) increased to EUR 1.8 billion from EUR 1.2 billion. The increase is partly caused by higher tariff compensation due to increased regulatory reimbursement in line with increased interest rates. In return, higher interest rates resulted in increased finance expenses which are not accounted for in the EBIT. Other factors driving higher EBIT in 2023 were the strongly grown reimbursement of costs of capital on investments and higher results from TenneT’s non-regulated joint venture BritNed connecting the UK and Dutch electricity market via a subsea cable.

As TenneT is negotiating a potential full sale of its German activities to KfW/German state, the dividend policy for 2023 is to pay-out 35 percent of the underlying profit attributable to equity holders of ordinary shares after a correction for the profits generated by the German operations and dividends on hybrid securities (in practice applying IFRS 5). This amounts to EUR 150 million. The cumulative amount of dividend paid over the last 10 years is EUR 1.7 billion.

Key underlying* financial figures (in millions of euros)	2023	2022
Revenue	9,222	9,840
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)	1,817	1,210
Investments in fixed assets	7,730	4,493
Total assets	44,746	40,966
Net interest-bearing debt	20,899	17,551
Equity	10,186	9,495

Long-term senior unsecured credit ratings for TenneT Holding B.V. remained unchanged and were reaffirmed by both Standard & Poor’s (A-/stable outlook) and Moody’s Investor Service (A3/stable outlook) in 2023. TenneT’s financial strategy is aimed at maintaining a senior unsecured credit rating of at least A3/A- and generating an acceptable return on investment in line with the company’s risk profile.

Arina Freitag, CFO TenneT:

“To achieve a futureproof energy system for a competitive and climate neutral economy halfway through this century, we must sustain investment momentum. Balancing economic efficiency, sustainability and a high level of grid availability expected by our end-customers in the Netherlands and Germany, requires a massive grid expansion. For TenneT this adds up to an investment programme of as much as EUR 160 billion and requires a consistent energy policy and solution-orientation from all parties involved."  

*Underlying financial information is based on International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (IFRS) plus the principle of recognising regulatory assets and liabilities for all of our regulated activities. This implies that amounts resulting from past events, and which are allowed to be received or are required to be returned through future tariffs, are recorded as an asset or liability, respectively.

In June 2023, the Dutch state provided EUR 1.6 billion to cover the funding requirements of the Dutch part of TenneT. Furthermore, TenneT is exploring together with its shareholder the Dutch State a potential sale of its German operations to KfW, acting on behalf of the German State. As there is no certainty that a transaction concerning the potential sale of TenneT Germany will materialise in the short term, the Dutch state has provided a bridge loan facility of EUR 25 billion in 2024, safeguarding TenneT’s planned investments in the Netherlands and Germany for 2024 and 2025.

The rapidly accelerating electrification of society is a positive sign of the energy transition, but it also leads to long waiting times to be connected, especially at TenneT’s regional 110-150 kV grids in the Netherlands. This will remain a critical situation for some time as TenneT is fully focussed on grid expansions to alleviate and eventually eliminates congestion. Through the National Grid Congestion Action Plan (LAN), grid operators and government are working closely together to solve grid congestion through a combination of faster permitting and construction, better utilisation of existing infrastructure and by relying on parties to make contracted flexibility available to others. On top of LAN, more unorthodox measures aimed at building electricity infrastructure faster, making better use of the power grid and enabling flexible use of the grid were announced in late 2023.

Grid expansion on land is finally making progress in Germany thanks to numerous acceleration measures over the past two years. Nevertheless, the many lost years are now having an increasing impact on ‘harvesting’ wind energy in the German North Sea. Due to the still numerous bottlenecks in the electricity grid on land, the large wind farms in the North Sea must be curtailed more and more often because there are hardly any large conventional power plants in the north that could be ramped down instead. As a result, the corresponding and necessary redispatch limits the generation of offshore wind power. This not only affects the amount of electricity fed into the grid, but also impacts its price development. In line with revised EU and German legislation, TenneT strives for a faster grid expansion and higher transmission capacities to bring larger volumes of North Sea offshore wind to the industry centres in Southern Germany by building electricity highways and developing a meshed grid based on direct current (DC) technology.

Looking further ahead, TenneT’s Target Grid 2045 provides a clear design and approach to ensure that the high-voltage infrastructure at sea and on land needed for a sustainable energy system is completed efficiently and effectively and is ready by 2045. Target Grid encompasses an internationally meshed grid of direct current (DC) electricity ‘superhighways’ and energy hubs, as well as significant improvements to the existing alternating current (AC) grid. The combination of energy hubs – connected by DC superhighways – ensures that renewable electricity can be transported over long distances from the North Sea to consumers and industry and that the electricity network remains dependable and secure.

Manon van Beek adds:

“As we strive together to create a climate neutral and affordable energy system by 2045, the road towards the green energy future that we all desire is not straight, smooth, or clearly signposted. However, it is a journey TenneT is fully prepared for and, although there is a need for realism, our plans show the required grid expansion to reach climate neutrality can be achieved in time to meet our national and Europe’s climate goals and to ensure energy security and competitiveness.’’

In 2023 TenneT worked on hundreds of onshore and offshore projects. Most notably:

• The construction of SuedLink – the 700km DC connection and a central infrastructure project of the energy transition in Germany – began in September. The construction of SuedOstLink was also kicked off in December.
• TenneT officially signed contracts with four cooperation partners to develop the North Sea as a hub for sustainable and independent European energy production. The long-term framework agreements, worth around EUR 30 billion, are Europe’s largest-ever tender award for energy transition infrastructure. The aim is to deliver the first fourteen 2 GW offshore grid connection systems by 2031, six in Germany and eight in the Netherlands.
• In the Netherlands, TenneT delivered the 700 MW offshore grid connection system for Hollandse Kust (noord). With this, TenneT achieved the objectives of the ‘Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2023’ on time and within budget.
• After three years of construction, the grid connection for Hollandse Kust (west) Alpha was delivered in December, three months ahead of schedule. This means that wind farm operator Ecowende can connect the wind turbines, which will be located approximately 50 km off the coast of Egmond aan Zee, to TenneT’s offshore 'socket'. Bringing the transmission capacity in the Dutch North Sea to 4.2 GW in total.
• TenneT’s 13th offshore grid connection system in Germany, DolWin6, was handed over to TenneT for regular operation in autumn 2023 as planned, bringing the transmission capacity in the German North Sea to 8 GW in total.
• During the year, TenneT completed the approximately 140 km long Westküstenleitung from Brunsbüttel via Heide to the Danish border.
• The 61-kilometre-long high-voltage connection Ganderkesee - St. Hülfe and a new 40-kilometre high-voltage connection between Eemshaven and high-voltage substation Vierverlaten (Groningen) were completed.
• Research into the feasibility of two new submarine interconnectors, one between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (LionLink), and the other from Germany to Norway, were announced. These interconnections are particularly significant as they will have a hybrid function, connected to offshore wind farms along the way. This is the tangible start of a European HVDC grid, part of Target Grid.’
• TenneT announced its Target Grid - the company’s vision of an integrated, onshore, and offshore, cross-border electricity grid, which is crucial to achieving a climate-neutral energy system by 2045.  
• With effect from 1 September 2023, Maarten Camps and Kuldip Singh were appointed as new members of TenneT's Supervisory Board. Laetitia Griffith’s appointment term as Supervisory Board member ends after more than eight years.