Vandebron Introduces New Cost Breakdown for Solar Panel Customers: What You Need to Know

ANP

NOS News•today, 09:23•Edited today, 09:44

Customers of energy supplier Vandebron with solar panels will soon receive less money back each month. It will save around 70,000 customers on average between ten and twenty euros per month.

This is because the company will charge costs for returning power to the grid. According to Vandebron, they thus contribute to the costs of the growing number of panels on roofs, costs that are now also incurred by customers without solar panels. They will soon be about 20 euros cheaper per month.

According to financial director Kim Verdouw, the levy will lead to a fairer distribution of costs. “This decision is something to swallow, but we think that if you put the costs in the right place, new innovation will eventually arise there.”

‘Unfair’

The company says that in practice, the levy means that people with solar panels will receive slightly less benefit than they have now, but are still cheaper than if they had no panels.

“The alternative is to continue to divide the costs; but then you get that the neighbor without panels pays for the neighbor with panels. We think that is unfair,” says Verdouw.

On sunny days, households with solar panels often generate more electricity than they themselves consume. They supply that extra power back to the grid and, via the net metering scheme, they can offset it at the end of the year against the power they have purchased from the grid. The scheme has been extremely successful, one in five households in the Netherlands now has solar panels.

The new cost breakdown goes into effect today for new customers. For current customers with a variable contract, this will take place from 1 October 2023. Customers with a permanent contract will retain their contract conditions during the contract term.

Higher costs

The fact that the costs for feeding back into the power grid are increasing is due to an overload of the power grid: customers all feed back at the same time, namely when the sun is shining, say at noon.

At the same time, demand is often very low, so the grid then becomes overloaded and the prices for that electricity also become lower and more often negative, which saddles the energy company with extra costs.

“These costs fluctuate and are therefore increasing enormously. Until now, we only charge those costs in the electricity rate. We now deduct it from that and put it in the solar panel owner’s bill,” says Verdouw.

Netting

According to the financial director, the new redistribution of costs is separate from the net metering scheme, the subsidy for solar panels.

“We applaud the energy transition, but see that due to the increase in the number of solar panels, more and more are being returned and the problems are getting bigger. That leads to costs, which is why we are doing this.”

Vandebron says he is not afraid that customers will soon switch to companies where the costs are not charged. “We think transparency and the transition as a whole are more important. It’s a matter of time before everyone does something with this.”

2023-08-15 07:23:02
#Solar #panels #slightly #affordable #Vandebron #customers