Since 1 January 2026 the Energy Act has changed who waits in the connection queue. Small connections, which used to get priority, no longer do. For housing developers, commercial real estate, area developments and municipalities, that means longer waits and less certainty, unless the project itself relieves the grid.
That last part is the opportunity. Projects that bring flexibility, such as a battery, controllable loads or a flexible contract, can be connected sooner or get extra capacity. In other words, energy is no longer something you arrange once the design is finished. It decides whether the project starts on time.
Three things follow for anyone planning a development.
Apply early, and apply with a plan. A request that shows the load profile and what the project can do to relieve the grid is a different conversation from a request for a number of kW.
Design for flexibility from the start. Charging, heat pumps and storage can often be arranged so the peak never happens. That is cheap on the drawing board and expensive to retrofit.
Don't forget the construction phase. Building sites are an underestimated bottleneck. A small connection plus a battery, or a hybrid set-up that grows with the project, often beats diesel on cost and wins permits. In Leiden a hybrid system came out 42% cheaper than diesel. Read the Leiden case.
The practical result: the first energy conversation should happen at the start of the project, with someone who knows what the grid operator will accept. That is where most delays can still be avoided.
