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Mega will demand customers hundreds of euros more with a reverse counter

August 31, 2022

11:56

Any individual who has solar panels on the roof, but does not yet have a electronic meter, will before long have to shell out a number of hundred euros additional to Mega. The electricity provider expenses the extra expenditures to check the grid balance.

Who has solar panels on the roof and is a Mega buyer, challenges remaining billed added fees from the renewal of the energy contract. In a letter, the Liège-centered electricity provider introduced that anyone who continue to has an old analog meter with a reverse meter can be expecting an added lump sum of a number of hundred euros for each yr. In this way, Mega wants to work out the further imbalance expenditures it has to incur to make sure that exactly more than enough vitality is purchased at any time of the day to electricity its shoppers.

“Due to the fact November 2021, the fees of functioning an energy contract with an installation of solar panels and a reverse meter have regrettably greater,” Mega writes in a letter to its buyers.

Given that November final year, the costs of taking care of an electricity agreement with the installation of photo voltaic panels and reverse meter have amplified.

Electricity suppliers have to have purchased exactly sufficient energy every single 15 minutes of the day to go over their customers’ use. If this is not possible, they will have to spend the imbalance tariffs to the grid operator Elia, who then compensates in other places to preserve the grid in balance. But for shoppers with solar panels, it is much more tricky to forecast in advance when they will eat and make electrical energy, specially if there is no digital meter that documents the grid enter and intake individually. Owing to the adjustments of the calculation method, the imbalance fees for suppliers have greater substantially in the past calendar year.

In accordance to Mega, the “producer-consumer” profile for that reason involves “added charges in buy to make sure balance on the energy grid and the easy running of energy transport”. For a client with photo voltaic panels, the imbalance fees would be 20 occasions higher than for a purchaser devoid of. Mega will cost the customer for these more fees by means of a fastened amount for the solar panels.

720 euros per calendar year

The extra charge is dependent on the inverter electric power of a photo voltaic panel installation. In its communication to buyers, Mega works by using a fictitious calculation example where by a surcharge of EUR 10 for every thirty day period for each kilovolt-ampere (kVA) is charged. For an set up with a 4.5 kVA inverter, the additional sum as a result rises to 540 euros for every 12 months.

But the client business Check-Achats he pointed out that in the helpful contracts because September the additional charge is much increased: 15 euros for every kVA for every month. A home with an normal inverter ability can expect an further invoice of 720 euros per year, or even 810 euros for a 4.5 kVA set up.

Octa + and Trevion also charge excess

Mega just isn’t the to start with electrical power provider to send a increased monthly bill to consumers with photo voltaic panels. The compact provider Trevion also prices a ‘flat rate solar panels’ of 2.76 euros for each kVA for every thirty day period. Previously, the energy provider Octa + had also despatched a letter to customers with photo voltaic panels that they would charge additional “imbalance rates”.

Octa + introduced this improve unilaterally for existing contracts, which has led to issues from, among some others, Test-Achats and Federal Electricity Ombudsman Eric Houtman. The Financial Inspectorate is now investigating the situation. A spokesperson for the Flemish strength regulator VREG suggests Octa + has in the meantime adjusted its policy and is no more time violating current contracts.

Mega requires a diverse tactic. It introduces extra costs only for new consumers or when an current deal expires and needs to be renewed. The Flemish electrical power watchdog thus sees no sense as very long as shoppers are thoroughly informed. “This is the toughness of the free of charge current market,” claims VREG spokesperson Leen Vandezande. “We advocate that people today who have acquired the e-mail or letter from Mega just take our V-Check to see if there is no additional interesting formulation for them.” In this rate comparison, the added flat costs for photo voltaic panels are involved in the calculation.

Octa + is below investigation by the Economic Inspectorate due to the fact it has amended existing contracts to cost extra “imbalance prices”.

Mega also points out in its conversation that buyers are no cost to switch strength suppliers and conclude a agreement somewhere else the place these kinds of costs are not billed. It is very best to do this at the time of looking at the meter. Usually, people hazard shedding some of the vitality they place into the grid.

The additional imbalance costs concern many households with photo voltaic panels who haven’t nevertheless switched to a digital meter. At the starting of past yr, the Constitutional Courtroom ruled a traverse the “virtual rollback counter” in people with solar panels and a digital meter. Lots of owners of solar panels did not put in a electronic meter to appreciate the old method for for a longer time with a counter that goes again when they feed solar vitality into the grid.

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