The government has threatened to reduce financial support to local councils if energy companies over-load their grid operators with debt, reports Tuesday’s Financieele Dagblad. Dutch energy firms are owned by local government.

The warning from the economic affairs ministry follows a revelation in the paper yesterday that energy companies such as Essent, Nuon and Eneco are in the process of creating financial constructions to secure loans for their grids debts totalling up to €12bn.
The cash would be used to pay out super dividends to the shareholders and for the energy concerns’ commercial activities (production, supply). The grids must be fully independent by 2011.
But the economic affairs ministry told the paper that the finance ministry also has the power to ensure that energy firms will not be able to create a situation in which they can cream off funds.
Meanwhile Nuon has told the FD that it does not intend to pay a super dividend. ‘We already pay out 45% of our profit to shareholders,’ a spokesman said. The paper reports that Nuon’s grid operator Continuon has debts of €2.8bn.
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