Dutch regulator prepares to charge electricity producers tariffs for grid
Adds reaction from producers' industry group in paragraphs 7-9
AMSTERDAM, Oct 2 (Reuters) -Dutch market regulator ACM is drawing up plans to charge major electricity producers a tariff for supplying electricity to the grid for the first time, saying this was needed due to rising costs.
"It is important that the costs be divided equally among all users of the electric grid and that suppliers and users abroad also pay for Dutch infrastructure," ACM management board member Manon Leijten said in a statement on Wednesday.
Under the current Dutch system, users - not producers - bear the cost of the grid. The size of tariffs has not yet been determined, the ACM added.
The move to introduce a tariff for producers comes as costs of constructing the Dutch grid are rising quickly.
TenneT, the Dutch government-owned firm that is the largest high tension grid operator in Germany and the Netherlands, plans to spend 160 billion euros($177 billion) in the coming decade. Much of that is to build infrastructure to support burgeoning wind turbine parks in the North Sea.
"The ACM has calculated that costs for all users of the net will rise from 7 billion euros annually at present to 15-25 billion annually" by 2040, the ACM said.
"Because of this heavy increase, an honest division of costs has become more important." It said power plants, solar parks and battery or storage facilities should all contribute to costs.
A spokesperson for producers' industry group Energie Nederland said it opposed the plan, which it argued would discourage investment in renewable power and could harm those that have already invested in it.
Energy Nederland's members include both Dutch producers such as Eneco and energy giants Shell, RWE and Vattenfall, that have invested in North Sea wind farms.
The ACM said it expected to publish a draft decision on the size of tariffs in 2025.
($1 = 0.9048 euros)
Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Peter Graff, Mark Potter and Alex Richardson
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