Solar Magazine – Stedin welcomes Utrecht, Zeeland and 21 municipalities as new shareholders

Together, the new shareholders strengthen Stedin’s equity by 34.8 million euros. The grid operator needs this to continue investing in the expansion and reinforcement of the power grid.

Better reflection
With the arrival of the group of new shareholders, not only is equity further strengthened, but the Utrecht and Zeeland participation also ensures a better reflection of shareholders in the catchment area.

Stedin believes that intensive cooperation with municipalities and provinces is essential. Shareholdership guarantees the most far-reaching form of cooperation and thus lays a solid foundation for jointly achieving the climate objectives for 2030 and 2050.

Peace
Stedin is investing at least 8 billion euros in the expansion of the electricity grid until 2030 and has been looking for capital since 2019. Existing shareholders have already contributed 451 million euros and last autumn the government pledged 500 million euros.

With all the new shareholders who have joined, Stedin now expects peace in terms of financing for the time being. Before the start of the new regulatory period, at the end of 2026, the network operator will again determine what capital requirements there may be.

Quest
“After more than 4 years, we have successfully completed the search for capital reinforcement,” says financial director Danny Benima. ‘Now that we are reaching the maximum capacity of our electricity grid in more and more places, the need to invest more in the grid is clearer than ever. This urgency has partly ensured that we have managed to convince provinces and municipalities in our service area to become shareholders. We are pulling out all the stops to expand the network for entrepreneurs and consumers. The financial and operational cooperation with current and new shareholders is extremely important in accelerating our construction task that is necessary to make the energy transition possible.’

Joint responsibility
“As a government, we bear a joint responsibility to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow,” says Maarten Struijvenberg, chairman of the shareholders’ committee and alderman for Finance of the municipality of Rotterdam. ‘By investing in strengthening our energy network, we not only create the necessary infrastructure for new homes and businesses, but we also lay a solid foundation for sustainable growth. Collaboration with municipalities and provinces as new shareholders, such as the province of Utrecht and the province of Zeeland, is crucial. Joining our forces enables us to guarantee security of supply and meet increasing demand.’