The German government is taking action to help Dutch national grid operator Tennet finance vital investments in the German grid network, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Monday.

The paper says the government has asked German state bank KfW about financing the billion euro investment in advance. Dutch state-owned Tennet, which bought a large chunk of the German grid in 2010, has to invest €8.5bn in improvements and linking offshore wind parks to the mainland.
While the project will eventually make money, Tennet does not have enough cash to finance the investments up front.
The Dutch government has refused to help finance the investment and is investigating a partial privatisation of Tennet, the paper says.