Fewer and fewer families have a fixed energy contract

In the fourth quarter, only 18.3 percent of families in Flanders have a permanent contract for electricity, while 81.7 percent have a variable contract. Since the VREG started recording the figures in 2010, fewer families have ever had a permanent contract. For comparison: in 2018, three quarters of families had a permanent contract for electricity.

During the energy crisis in 2022, suppliers stopped offering fixed contracts, so many families had no choice but to switch to a variable contract. Since 2023, more permanent contracts have been offered again, but the number of families with such a permanent contract continues to decrease. A permanent contract is usually more expensive. Peace of mind about a fixed bill comes with a price.

Also for natural gas, a small minority (17.5 percent) still has a permanent contract, and the majority of families (82.5 percent) have a variable contract. These are the lowest percentages for fixed since 2012.

Barely 0.1 percent of families in Flanders had a dynamic contract for electricity in the fourth quarter. These are contracts in which the purchase of electricity per hour is charged at the price of that hour on the energy exchanges.