If you've tried to get a new grid connection for a charging site in the Netherlands recently, you already know the number that matters isn't kW, it's years. Regional grid operators there are sitting on more than 14,000 pending requests for electricity offtake, totaling roughly 9 GW of capacity, and wait times for a standard connection or expansion can stretch close to a decade in the most congested regions.
Belgium isn't there yet at the same scale, but the direction is the same: congestion is spreading beyond a handful of hotspots, and new charging projects are starting to face connection delays of their own.
For an operator planning to add sites or add power to existing ones, "wait in line" isn't really a plan.
The workaround grid operators are actually offering
This is where it gets interesting. Rather than leaving everyone stuck in the same queue, Dutch grid operators are increasingly offering an alternative: a flexible or capacity-limited connection. You get connected now, sometimes far faster than a standard request, but the grid operator keeps the right to curtail your capacity during peak moments on the network. In 2026, several regional operators are running tenders specifically for this kind of flexible capacity, and time-dependent contracts that shrink your available power during certain hours and expand it during others are moving from pilot to normal offering. Belgian grid operators are watching the same congestion trend and pointing at flexible, restricted-capacity access as one of the tools to avoid the Dutch scenario repeating itself.
For an operator sitting on a multi-year waitlist, this is obviously attractive. Faster access beats a guaranteed connection you won't have for years.
What curtailment means at 6pm on a Tuesday
Here's the part that doesn't show up in the tender announcement: a flexible connection means the grid operator can, and will, cap or cut your available power exactly when the network is under the most strain. On a residential-heavy feeder, that's very often early evening, which for a public charging site is also very often when demand, and revenue, is at its highest.
If your site has no way to manage its own load ahead of that moment, curtailment happens to it. Sessions get capped mid-charge, cars queue for power that isn't there, and the version of your business the grid operator sees you needing least urgently is the exact version your customers are relying on.
That's not a hypothetical footnote. It's the actual tradeoff of accepting a flexible connection: faster access to the grid in exchange for giving up the guarantee that full power is always there when you want it.
Illustrative: price rises as a site approaches its load ceiling, and eases off once headroom opens up again. Same demand-aware logic as yesterday's physical connection limit, applied here to a ceiling the grid operator imposes rather than one you manage yourself.
Pricing as the thing that makes flexible connections work
This is precisely the gap that load-aware, real-time pricing is built to close, and it's a different job than the demand-charge or general capacity-bottleneck cases operators are more used to thinking about. There, the constraint is your own connection limit and your own monthly bill. Here, the constraint is imposed from outside, on a schedule you don't fully control and that can shift with grid conditions.
The response, though, is the same lever: make plugging in during the site's constrained window less attractive than plugging in an hour earlier or later, before the grid operator has to make that decision for you. Done well, a site on a flexible contract self-manages its way around the curtailment window often enough that the operator's hard cap rarely actually bites. The operator keeps the faster connection they signed up for, and customers experience a price signal instead of a stalled session.
Done poorly, or not at all, a flexible connection just moves the failure point from "no connection for years" to "connection that quietly fails you during your busiest hour."
Why this is worth deciding on purpose
Flexible and curtailable grid connections are going to become a normal part of how charging networks get built in congested markets, not an edge case. That makes the pricing question that comes with them a genuine strategic choice, not an afterthought: accept a flexible connection assuming you'll manage load actively, or hold out for a standard connection and accept the multi-year wait that comes with it.
We wrote just yesterday about why grid capacity has become the first growth constraint ahead of market demand. This is the same idea from the grid operator's side of the fence: it isn't only your own connection limit that calls for active management, a limit imposed from outside does too.
If your growth plans in the Netherlands, Belgium, or anywhere else facing grid congestion depend on a flexible or capacity-limited connection, it's worth working out how load-aware pricing fits before the contract is signed, not after the first curtailment event surprises a site full of customers.
If you're weighing a flexible connection offer right now and want to compare notes on how you'd manage the curtailment windows, happy to talk operator to operator.
Frequently asked questions
Why are flexible/curtailable grid connections becoming more common?
Dutch regional grid operators together have more than 14,000 pending connection requests, totaling roughly 9 GW, and wait times in the most congested regions stretch close to a decade. To ease that pressure, grid operators are increasingly offering flexible contracts that connect faster in exchange for the right to curtail during peak moments. Several regional tenders specifically for this kind of flexible capacity are running in 2026.
What does curtailment actually mean for a charging site?
The grid operator can cap or reduce a site's available power at moments when the local network is under strain, often early evening on a residential-heavy feeder. Without active load management, a site only finds out in the moment: sessions get capped, cars wait for power that isn't there, exactly when demand and revenue are highest.
How does pricing help manage a flexible connection?
By making plugging in during the constrained window slightly less attractive than an hour earlier or later, part of the demand shifts itself before the grid operator has to step in. It's the same lever operators already use against demand charges, just triggered by the grid instead of their own monthly bill.
Does this replace the need for a standard connection?
No. Where growth genuinely needs more power than a flexible connection can ever offer, a full standard connection is still necessary, even if it takes longer to get. For sites that fit within their flexible limit most of the time, pricing is what decides whether it's a good deal or a hidden risk.