Energy prices are falling again and fixed contracts are back: time to compare energy suppliers. But if you generate a lot of solar power, not only the rates are important. You can also save via the feed-in fee.
Generated solar power can still be netted as much as possible for the time being: offset against used power. That will change in the future, but more on that later.
If you now generate more electricity than you consume – that is only the case with many households if they have at least ten to fifteen panels – you will receive money for this: a feed-in fee. But that fee decreases and differs per provider.
The amount you receive for extra kilowatt-hours of electricity generated was previously often directly linked to the price you paid for power consumption (without taxes). But recently that is no longer the case.
Energy suppliers saw electricity prices more than triple in the past year: from about 20 cents to sometimes even 75 cents per kilowatt hour, and so did the feed-in fee. That cost the suppliers a lot of money. And so they opt for a lower fixed amount, which is no longer directly linked to electricity rates.
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Feed-in compensation many times lower than last winter
The result is that you now get back an average of about 9 cents per kilowatt hour. But the differences are big. “The amount varies between 5 and 12 cents”, calculates energy expert Joris Kerkhof of comparator Independer. “Suppose you are able to return 2,000 kilowatt hours annually, then choosing an energy supplier with a favorable fee can already yield 140 euros on an annual basis.”
Kerkhof finds it difficult to discover a common thread. Do price fighters in particular pay a lot for feed-in or do the largest energy suppliers? And do they have favorable rates for electricity and gas as well as for the return of electricity?
If a supplier is expensive with gas, but still has a favorable electricity price and feed-in fee, you could still purchase gas and electricity from different suppliers. Apart from some extra arrangements, this has no disadvantages, according to Kerkhof.
End of netting makes feed-in compensation more important
In the coming years it will become even more important to see what your generated power is worth. The cabinet intends to make netting impossible in steps from 2025 to 2031, although the Senate still has to vote on this. The idea is that netting is now an advantage that people without panels have to pay for.
If you can’t offset consumed power against generated power, you supply everything back. Unless you can use that power at a later time via your own battery.
“Minister of Energy Rob Jetten wants to keep solar panels attractive. So he proposes that the feed-in fee should be at least 80 percent of the electricity rate,” says Kerkhof. Now the fee is much lower.
2023-06-10 15:01:45
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