Essent is going to introduce feed-in charges on solar panels, the energy supplier reported Monday in a press release. Because of the overproduction of solar power – power that households generate during sunny weather but do not consume directly – the company says it faces additional costs.
‘These costs amount to hundreds of euros per year per solar panel customer, the ACM (the regulator, ed.) stated in a recently published report,’ Essent said. ‘By introducing feed-in charges, the electricity tariff can be reduced by 35% for all customers with a variable energy contract, including customers with solar panels.’
So the price of a variable contract is reduced by 30%. A customer without solar panels will save €250 annually under the new plan. Essent is not the first energy supplier to switch to such a scheme. Vattenfall and Eneco previously announced that they would apply it.
Late last week it appeared that a majority in the Lower House wants to make it impossible for energy companies to collect a negative fee from consumers who supply solar power to the grid. Energy companies compensate customers with solar panels for power they do not use themselves, but feed back into the grid. For customers with so-called dynamic energy contracts, that compensation can also be negative on some days and hours. They therefore have to pay for their surplus solar power generation.
The proposal does not eliminate the feed-in tax that many companies charge and about which there is much public discontent. So the fixed feed-in fee that power companies charge can remain in place, but the rates per kilowatt-hour of electricity cannot become negative.
Essent’s new rates are €0.26 per kilowatt-hour of electricity and €1.28 per cubic meter of gas. They take effect July 1 and apply to about one million households with variable energy contracts.
Bron: FD.nl, 5/27/2024 07:41 A.M.