Liander has lodged an objection with the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) against the decision to impose a fine for exceeding the statutory period within which the network operator must connect customers. Liander is of the opinion that litigation and disputes and the imposition of fines in no way provide a solution to the social issue of the very large shortage of technicians in the Netherlands.

Like the rest of the Netherlands, Liander is facing a great shortage of technicians. At the same time, the network operator's work package is growing very quickly due to the energy transition and growing economy. The grid operator is expanding the electricity grid throughout its service area, has been training a great many additional technicians for a long time and has been investing in innovations to make better use of the grid for years. Despite this, the waiting time for customers is increasing.

Liander regrets that in its ruling ACM ignores the social issue of the enormous shortage of technicians in the Netherlands.

Charging station company fastned filed a complaint with ACM because Liander was unable to meet the statutory 18-week period for a new connection. For this, the supervisor Liander imposed a fine of € 50.000 in July, to be paid to the Dutch State.

ACM has mitigated the fine, because this concerns one violation of the statutory connection term. In addition, the requested connection has now been realized and it has not been shown that Fastned has suffered damage as a result of the delayed connection.

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