Governing Grid Congestion in Amsterdam
Designing Context-Sensitive Governance for Electricity Grid Expansion
M.K.J. van den Heuvel (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
T.A.P. Metze – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
L.J. de Vries – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Increasing electrification has intensified grid congestion in the Netherlands, making electricity network expansion a critical challenge for the energy transition. In Amsterdam, this challenge is particularly complex due to high electricity demand, spatial scarcity, competing land-use interests and a fragmented institutional landscape. Addressing grid congestion therefore requires not only technical solutions, but also effective governance and collaboration between grid operators, municipal authorities and other stakeholders.
This research examines how the governance arrangement of the Taskforce Congestie Amsterdam (TFCA) can be redesigned to better support collaboration, coordination and implementation of long-term grid expansion. The TFCA is conceptualized as a collaborative governance arrangement rather than a single organization. A qualitative, design-oriented research approach was adopted, combining literature review, stakeholder and system analysis, surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, a co-creation session, morphological analysis, multi-criteria analysis and validation interviews. Collaborative governance, multi-level governance and governance design served as the analytical framework.
The findings indicate that the TFCA has strengthened communication, trust and shared understanding among participating organizations. However, persistent governance challenges remain, including unclear roles and responsibilities, fragmented municipal coordination, weak issue ownership and limited links between coordination, decision-making and implementation. Based on these findings, four governance archetypes were developed and evaluated. The preferred design strengthens the existing TFCA by improving role clarity, issue preparation, escalation mechanisms, shared information management and implementation readiness, while preserving the collaborative capacity of the current arrangement.
Although the proposed governance design cannot eliminate structural constraints such as spatial scarcity, permitting procedures and workforce shortages, it improves the institutional conditions for effective long-term grid expansion. This research contributes to collaborative governance literature by demonstrating that successful collaboration depends not only on stakeholder interaction, but also on governance arrangements that effectively organize ownership, decision routes, information sharing and implementation capacity.