Minister wants fine for solar panel owners without a smart or digital meter – IT Pro – News

In the future, Dutch owners of solar panels must have either a smart meter or a digital meter. According to the Minister of Economic Affairs, this should be mandatory, otherwise the owner could receive an order subject to penalty from the Telecom Agency.

Solar panel owners must have such a meter when the netting scheme is phased out, it says the Bill on phasing out netting scheme. This means that from 1 January 2023, all owners must have a meter that can measure the supply and feed-in of electricity separately. This can be a smart meter or a digital meter that cannot be read from a distance, but can measure the individual readings. Network operators will offer such a meter to owners who do not yet have one from 2021. Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate has now a bill has been sent to the Lower House, containing changes made by the Council of State.

The bill states that owners are obliged to have such a smart meter installed if offered to them. Those who do not wish to do so can receive an order subject to penalty from the Telecom Agency. This could be followed by a fine. Wiebes does not write how high that fine can be.

Currently, about eighty percent of solar panel owners have a smart meter. The other twenty percent still use a so-called ferraris meter, a reverse meter. “It has been decided to create this obligation for all small consumers instead of just the small consumers who have solar panels, because it cannot be conclusively ascertained who does and who does not have solar panels”, Wiebes writes. “By introducing the obligation of such a metering device for all small consumers, solar panel holders can no longer actually continue to balance with a ferrous meter.” Wiebes also cites the rise of electric cars and batteries for electricity storage as a reason for this obligation.

The plan is not entirely new. When Wiebes announced the new phase-out of the netting scheme last year, he already wanted ‘energy meters with double counters’ to be mandatory, but that is now officially laid down in law. The order subject to a penalty is now also linked to this. The House of Representatives still has to vote on the proposal.

–