Thomas Viehweg is angry. He is standing in front of his large combined heat and power plant in the Sevelen nursery. The modern device not only produces electricity for his own nursery, but surpluses are also fed into the general power grid. However, he has not yet received any compensation for this from Westnetz, the responsible grid operator. Even though the system has had a meter since September 2023. “But the bills from them come on time,” says the entrepreneur. Only the credit for the electricity fed into the grid has been a year away.
The same thing happened to Oliver Klings, who runs a farm in Winternam. Things are even worse for him. “Our meter was installed in December 2022 and from that point on, electricity will be produced and fed into the grid.” Since he got the combined heat and power plant, he hasn’t received any money for the electricity from the photovoltaic system. Something had gone wrong with the billing, was the reason he was given.
Both invested in their own systems when the war in Ukraine began and the word “power shortage” was making the rounds. Both the plants in his nursery and the animals on the farm depend on a regular power supply. Excess electricity goes into the normal grid. Thomas Viehweg assumes that he is now missing 130,000 to 140,000 euros, which will be paid out by Westnetz at some point because the electricity has been running through the meter, but it is uncertain when. This also has an impact on a current project. He is building another large photovoltaic system in Rheurdt. The bank advisor wanted to know whether he should extend the term of the loan because the money from Westnetz is so unreliable.
“We are just an example of medium-sized companies,” says Thomas Viehweg. He knows of other people affected in the Lower Rhine region. Just installing the meters would have taken an incredibly long time. CDU member of the Bundestag Stefan Rouenhoff heard about the case from the editorial team and got involved. In order to clarify the case, he wants to submit a written request to the federal government.
The editorial team also asked Westnetz why it takes so long for both the meters and the payments for electricity that has already been fed in. It is also annoying that the companies are initially put on hold when they call Westnetz.
Westnetz apologizes. “This is of course very regrettable,” says the employee responsible for public relations. The explanation for the problems: A comprehensive IT project has taken place across the group, “with which we are improving our processes, especially at the customer interface, and are becoming even faster overall through digitalization.” Due to these IT changes, the payment of the customers mentioned has been delayed. The promise: “Our specialist department will carry out the billing as quickly as possible.”
Regarding the electricity meters, which took a long time to arrive, Westnetz writes in explanation: “In addition, there were delays in shipping the electricity meters last year due to very high demand for smart meters and delivery bottlenecks at the producers; fortunately, the situation has eased here.” Viehweg and Klings are curious to see when the outstanding money will be transferred.
