Accelerating Storage Starts with Certainty: Loyens & Loeff on the Legal Basis for Flexibility

Every month, Energy Storage NL introduces a new member to its supporters. This month we meet Loyens & Loeff, an international law and tax advisory firm that assists market participants with legal and tax issues related to energy and infrastructure projects. Through its Energy & Infrastructure team, Loyens & Loeff advises on topics including battery storage, grid solutions, flexibility, permits, contracting, and financing. In this interview, they explain how legal and tax expertise can help accelerate energy storage, what challenges they encounter in practice, and why collaboration within Energy Storage NL is important for further scaling up storage and flexibility.

How is Loyens & Loeff involved in the energy transition, and what role do energy and climate play in your advisory practice?

Loyens & Loeff provides integrated legal and tax advice to parties involved in the energy transition throughout the entire lifecycle of energy and infrastructure projects. This ranges from development, permitting, and contracting to financing, mergers and acquisitions, disputes, and, where necessary, restructuring.

Within the Energy & Infrastructure team, there is a clear focus on transition-related topics such as battery storage and grid solutions, onshore and offshore wind energy, heat and geothermal energy, hydrogen, and related infrastructure.

In addition, Loyens & Loeff regularly serves as a strategic advisor on complex development projects and tenders, where legal, tax, and regulatory aspects must be considered in conjunction with one another.

From a legal and tax perspective: How do you support your clients in terms of wage increases and flexibility?

Loyens & Loeff supports clients with storage and flexibility issues by ensuring that projects are properly structured from a legal and tax perspective and are feasible. This includes advice on alternative connection and grid solutions, such as cable pooling, private networks, direct lines, on-site consumption, and electrical or chemical storage. It also involves drafting and reviewing the necessary contracts, approvals, and permits. Relevant frameworks, such as the upcoming Energy Act, codes, and European regulations, are taken into account from the outset to ensure that solutions remain sustainable and compliant in the long term.

In addition, Loyens & Loeff advises on instruments and schemes that promote flexibility, such as the Flexible Electricity Consumption subsidy module. The firm also assists clients with issues related to market access and the division of roles—for example, in BSP, CSP, and BRP structures—as well as with the use of storage in balance, day-ahead, and intraday markets.

In the area of tax, Loyens & Loeff provides support in areas such as energy tax, VAT, customs, and other energy-related levies. The firm also offers training sessions for clients on topics such as battery storage, cable pooling, and energy tax, including BESS.

Are you already working on specific energy storage or flexibility issues? If so, what kinds of questions do customers ask?

Yes. A specific example is Loyens & Loeff’s involvement in the financing of Pure Energie’s Batterij Groen, which has a capacity of 63 MWh. Among other things, the firm provided support with regard to the project’s financeability, due diligence, and negotiations on essential project documentation.

Loyens & Loeff also advises on large-scale BESS projects in the Benelux, including project financing, route-to-market strategies, and contract documentation for major battery projects.

Typical legal and tax questions that come up in this context include:

• Network Congestion & Interconnection: How Can You Still Make It Happen (Alternative Transmission Rights, Direct Lines, Private Networks, Cable Pooling)?
• Contracting: PPAs, EPC contracts, tolling/offtake structures, and agreements regarding flexibility and market participation.
• Regulatory framework: grid tariffs, permits/approvals, production/supply licenses, subsidy and support mechanisms.

In which types of storage projects do you see the most legal or tax-related developments or opportunities?

At present, Loyens & Loeff sees many opportunities in battery storage and grid solutions. The energy transition is increasingly reaching the limits of available grid capacity, while grid expansion takes a long time. As a result, market players are looking for alternative solutions. Hybrid projects—in which generation, storage, and consumption are combined under a single connection—also raise new legal and tax issues.

In addition, the firm sees opportunities in the broader flexibility chain, including cable pooling, direct lines, and heating solutions such as aquifer thermal energy storage and district heating networks. In these areas, legislation, regulations, and market models are still very much under development.

What challenges do clients face when developing and implementing storage projects?

A recurring challenge is grid congestion. Waiting times and restrictions on new or higher-capacity connections cause projects to be delayed or redesigned. Furthermore, regulations and implementation practices do not always keep pace with technological developments. This leads to questions of interpretation and uncertainty regarding permitting and financing.

Tariff and regulatory barriers also play a role, such as transmission tariffs for battery charging. In addition, the question arises as to which project structure is both legally sound and financially viable, especially when property tax (WOZ) or connection regulations impose restrictions.

Finally, the implementation of storage projects requires a well-balanced combination of contracting, permits, approvals, and legal and tax structuring. After all, storage falls between production and consumption and is therefore subject to multiple regulatory frameworks.

How do you see laws and regulations evolving to better facilitate storage? What changes are needed?

Practical experience shows that there is a need for greater legal clarity regarding storage as a standalone function, alongside production and consumption. Rules are also needed to better facilitate efficient connection configurations, such as cable pooling with batteries and direct lines. Furthermore, further harmonization and clarification at the European level are important—including under RED II and RED III—so that national implementation results in less fragmentation for cross-border investors.

In addition, it is important that regulations—such as rate structures and incentives—do not inadvertently hinder investments in flexibility, but rather support them. Instruments that encourage flexible consumption and storage, such as the Flexible Electricity Consumption subsidy module, can help in this regard.

How can collaboration within Energy Storage NL help address legal and tax issues?

Energy Storage NL plays a key role as a unifying force within the broad energy storage landscape, ranging from heat and molecules to electricity. It is precisely this breadth that makes it possible not only to identify cross-sectoral bottlenecks—such as permitting processes, tariff incentives, and market frameworks—but also to analyze and prioritize them. In addition, Energy Storage NL can bring these bottlenecks to the attention of lawmakers and regulators, such as the ACM and government ministries, for example through position papers and consultation responses.

By pooling experiences and developing shared best practices, we can present a stronger and more consistent case to policymakers and implementers. This helps ensure that legal and tax barriers are addressed in a comprehensive and well-founded manner, rather than in a fragmented way. As a result, bottlenecks can also be resolved more effectively.

Why did Loyens & Loeff join Energy Storage NL? What do you hope to achieve and contribute?

The decision to join Energy Storage NL aligns with Loyens & Loeff’s strategic focus on battery storage and grid solutions. These play a key role in the energy transition. Particularly given the increasing grid congestion, storage and flexibility are no longer a niche, but an essential part of the energy system of the future.

Membership provides Loyens & Loeff with direct access to market developments, practical issues, and diverse perspectives within the sector—from developers and grid operators to financiers and large-scale consumers. In addition, membership allows the firm to become involved at an early stage in policy developments and consultations relevant to clients. These insights help tailor our advice even more closely to the realities of projects and investment decisions.

At the same time, Loyens & Loeff actively contributes its integrated legal and tax expertise. The firm advises on the structuring of energy storage projects and shares insights regarding contracting, regulations, and market models. In this way, Loyens & Loeff not only makes a substantive contribution to the network but also helps strengthen the framework conditions for further scaling up energy storage.

What steps are needed at the policy, market, and industry levels to enable energy storage in the Netherlands to happen faster and on a larger scale?

A key prerequisite is reducing the impact of grid congestion. As long as grid expansion takes time, it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of solutions and make better use of them.

In addition, policies that actively and concretely support flexibility are helpful. Examples include targeted subsidy programs for assessments, feasibility studies, and the implementation of flexibility measures, including storage.

Finally, predictable and consistent market frameworks are essential. Clear tariff structures, access rules, and a clear positioning of storage within the energy system increase confidence among financiers. Combined with more efficient permitting processes and further standardization of contract and connection models, this can contribute to faster project implementation.

 

Would you like to become a member of Energy Storage NL? Sign up via the registration form and help shape the future of energy storage.