Home » Business » New postponement for peak electricity rate

New postponement for peak electricity rate

16 mei 2022

12:58

The new Flemish electricity grid tariffs, which increase as consumers cause higher consumption peaks, do not seem to come into effect this summer. The regulator VREG rests in a new postponement until January 2023.

It seems that Flemish families and companies will not have to pay higher grid rates from 1 July if they switch on many power-hungry devices at the same time. Normally, the capacity tariff will be entered from then on. The distribution network tariffs would then largely be determined by consumption at peak times and no longer on the basis of the total amount of electricity that someone takes from the network.

For a family with the usual household appliances such as washing machine, oven and iron will usually not change that much with the new rate. Anyone who has an electric car or a heat pump can save hundreds of euros per year by cleverly spreading their electricity consumption from the grid. For homes with very low consumption, such as second homes, the contribution for the use of the electricity network will increase.

But after the introduction of the peak rate has already been postponed for half a year, the IT systems of the distribution system operator Fluvius are not yet ready and tested. The energy regulator VREG is therefore prepared to allow a final postponement, so that the new network tariffs can come into effect on 1 January 2023.

IT-problemen

We do not want to take any risk to jeopardize the proper functioning of the market and the correct billing of customers.

Leen Vandezande

Spokesperson VREG



In a press release, the VREG says that Fluvius has provided ‘insufficient time in its planning to sufficiently test the changes in the market systems and the data exchange with energy suppliers’. Both Fluvius and the supplier federation FEBEG had requested the implementation to be postponed by six months† The suppliers, where customer services are already inundated with questions, did not want to start the tests during such a busy period.

Although not wholeheartedly, the VREG agrees with the request for postponement. “We regret it,” said spokesman Leen Vandezande. ‘But we don’t want to take any risk to jeopardize the proper functioning of the market and the correct billing of customers.’

There is no formal decision yet. The VREG will start a public consultation until the end of May. Only then can the board of the regulator take the decision.

Fines for new delays

At the same time, the VREG warns that this is the last chance for Fluvius and that it should not count on another postponement. If the IT systems are not ready in time, fines can follow. The VREG also foresees interim targets that Fluvius must already achieve in the autumn, to ensure that everything is in place by 1 January.

In recent months, the Flemish majority parties had the press the VREG ramped up† With the exploding energy bills, they did not like the introduction of new network tariffs.

But the VREG does not intend to cancel the implementation completely. The new network tariffs should encourage consumers to spread their consumption better. In this way they prevent the power grid from becoming overloaded as more and more electric cars and heat pumps are put into use. If they suddenly all switch on at the same time in the evening, additional billions of euros in investments would be needed to strengthen the electricity grid. The VREG hopes to limit infrastructure costs through a better distribution of consumption.

The regulator emphasizes that this is a zero operation. The network rates are not going up, they are just calculated differently.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.