Against this backdrop, Royal Avebe, a co-op owned by Dutch farmers, has demonstrated that industrial electrification can move ahead, even within strict grid limits.
At its production site in Foxhol, Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands, Royal Avebe has worked with Schneider Electric and software specialist AVEVA to replace fossil fuel-based process heating with an industrial electric boiler. Crucially, the project was completed without increasing the site’s maximum grid connection.
The facility produces starch derivatives and plant-based ingredients from potatoes supplied by member farmers. These ingredients are sold to food manufacturers across Europe and are used in products ranging from baked goods to soups and sauces. Process heat is central to such operations, traditionally generated by burning natural gas.
The challenge Royal Avebe faces is common to many food processors: how to decarbonise energy-intensive production in a country where grid congestion has become a major obstacle to expansion and electrification.
According to Eurelectric’s report, more than 1 700GW of clean energy and electrification projects are currently waiting in grid connection queues across the continent. In December 2025, the European Commission acknowledged that at least 16 EU member states are grappling with grid connection backlogs, slowing both climate action and economic growth.
For manufacturers, the contradiction is stark. They are under pressure from regulators, customers, and investors to cut emissions, yet they face a decade-long wait for the electrical capacity needed to do so.
A practical workaround
Rather than joining the queue for additional grid capacity, Royal Avebe and its partners rethought how the Foxhol plant uses and manages energy within its existing limits.
The project involved installing a new industrial electric boiler and eliminating fossil-fuel heating in the targeted production area. But the key innovation lies in the digital energy management system built around the upgrade.
More than 1 000 data points across the site, including 542 smart medium-voltage relays, were integrated into a single real-time monitoring and control platform. This system provides a unified operational view of electricity consumption, process performance, and grid interaction.
In simple terms, the plant now ‘thinks’ about its electricity use.
