Flexible grid contracts

The grid operator is offering you a restricted contract. Now what?

CSC, BPC, blokstroom, CBC — four names that all come down to the same thing: you get room on the grid, provided you fit in with when you use it. They are not only for people stuck in the queue: a CSC or biedplichtcontract can just as easily sit on a connection you have had for years. Here is what is actually about to happen, and what it is worth.

These contracts are not a trick. They exist because the grid is full for a handful of hours a year and has room to spare the rest of the time. Anyone willing to work around that gets access to capacity that otherwise has a queue in front of it — and pays a lower tariff on top.

The catch is not in the contract but in the execution: with no measures in place, throttling means your process stops. A battery of sufficient size covers those moments, so the agreement costs you nothing in production. That is the whole idea.

The four contracts, in plain language

CSC

Capaciteitssturingscontract — capacity steering contract

Since May 2026 the successor to the CBC, and by far the contract you are most likely to meet. You deploy flexible capacity to support the grid: depending on what the grid needs, you temporarily throttle your consumption or feed-in — or raise it. This applies in every situation: on an existing connection, on a new application, and even if all you want is to cut your costs.

What you give up: Control over your consumption at the moments the grid operator needs relief.
What you get for it: A fee. And if you happen to be in the queue, it also lets you agree temporary extra capacity until the grid upgrade is finished.
What the battery does: The battery supplies during those hours, so your draw from the grid falls without anything changing in your business. We handle the control automatically.

BPC

Biedplichtcontract — bid-obligation contract, soon renamed redispatch contract

Here you commit not to throttling but to bidding: when the grid operator expects congestion at short notice, you offer your flexible capacity. Requests run through GOPACS, the joint Dutch grid operators’ congestion platform. This too is independent of your situation — it sits alongside an existing connection, a new one, or a CSC.

What you give up: The obligation to bid whenever a request goes out — not a guarantee that you will be called.
What you get for it: A fixed monthly availability fee, paid whether or not your capacity is used, plus a payment per call-off in euros per kilowatt per quarter hour.
What the battery does: A battery is the ideal thing to bid with: it can deliver within seconds without your process noticing. The availability fee becomes a structural line of income rather than a risk.

TBTR

Blokstroom — tijdsblokgebonden transportrecht, time-block transport right

Extra transport capacity inside a fixed time window, designed to use the headroom the regional grid does have overnight. Regional grid operators have offered it since April 2025 under the name Blokstroom — currently for a fixed block from 00:00 to 06:00. Outside that window nothing is added.

What you give up: Use of the extra capacity outside the window. During the day your connection stays exactly what it was.
What you get for it: Extra capacity on a connection that is otherwise locked, at a lower tariff, without waiting for a grid upgrade.
What the battery does: Here the battery is not an optimisation but the precondition. Capacity available only at night is worth nothing to a business that runs by day. The battery fills up inside the window and supplies during the day — turning night capacity into day capacity.

CBC

Capaciteitsbeperkingscontract — the predecessor

The forerunner of the CSC, and one-directional: consume or feed in less when the grid risks overload, either within fixed windows or on call. New contracts are no longer written this way, but you will still meet it in running agreements.

What you give up: Capacity within agreed windows or on call.
What you get for it: A fee, and in congestion zones headroom that was not otherwise there.
What the battery does: Same principle as the CSC: the battery fills the gap the grid leaves at those moments.

The judgement call

Should you sign?

Usually yes — but not without knowing how many hours it really involves in your grid area, and what standing still during those hours would cost you. That sum decides the answer, and it is the same sum that decides how big the battery needs to be.

What you should not do is sign and hope it turns out fine. A contract you cannot honour is more expensive than not having one. Have it worked through before you sign — even if you buy the battery somewhere else.

Got a contract on the table and doubts about the terms?

Send us the offer. You will get back what it means in your situation, and what it takes to make it painless.

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