Controlled and owned by the Dutch government, it is responsible for overseeing the operation of the 380 and 220 kV high-voltage grid throughout the Netherlands and its interconnections with neighbouring countries.

On 1 March 2018, the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation against TenneT, alleging it was deliberately bottlenecking the grid connection between Denmark and Northern Germany, preventing cheap wind and hydro power from Scandinavia from being exported to the German market.

In 2006, TenneT entered into construction of the 700 MW NorNed undersea HVDC submarine power cable with the Norwegian transmission operator Statnett.

[7] Connecting the Norwegian and Dutch grids at Feda and Eemshaven, the ±450 kV bipolar cable is, at 580 kilometres (360 mi), the longest undersea power line in the world.

[8] During the first two months of test operations, it generated approximately €50 million in revenue, greatly exceeding estimates, and recovering 12% of its cost of construction.

[9] TenneT formed a joint venture with the British transmission operator National Grid to construct the 260-kilometre (160 mi) 1,000 MW BritNed HVDC link between the Isle of Grain, Kent and Maasvlakte, near Rotterdam.

[17] TenneT builds the 2 GigaWatt SuedLink, an onshore DC link between Hamburg and south Germany (near Frankfurt), but local opposition means that a timeline is unclear.

[22] In 2016, TenneT suggested a 6 km2 artificial island in the Dutch corner of the Dogger Bank in the middle of the North Sea, connecting several GigaWatts of offshore wind farms with alternating current.

To allow for a more robust redistribution of electricity, an almost 700 kilometer high-voltage direct current transmission line called "Suedlink" (sometimes spelled "Südlink") is planned to be built, connecting North of the country to its South.

[30] Demonstrators' claim is that instead of big distributors like TenneT, Germany should rely more on a decentralized system of photovoltaics, wind energy and hydrogen.