450,000 households run the risk of having to pay to sell their solar power to their energy supplier
© Marc Herremans – Mediahuis
450,000 Flemish households are in danger of having to pay for the solar energy that they sell to their supplier. This is the conclusion of a study by VRT NWS. Especially when it becomes a sunny summer, Dreign has to pay many families. One supplier, Octa+, makes some customers already pay.
Some ECTA+ customers have to pay about 1 cents per kWh of solar power that they sell to the supplier, even if that electricity is in fact worth more than 4 cents per kWh, the VRT study shows and is confirmed by the Federal Ombudsman Energie.
In the recent past, Energie.be and Eneco customers also charged extra costs when they bought solar power from customers. The Flemish utility regulator calculated that in 2024 Eneco customers had even had to pay an average of 90 euros for the solar power that they had sold to their supplier. Both suppliers did union. Energie.be no longer let customers pay extra, but paid 0 euros for the purchased electricity in April.
VRT NWS took all 86 contracts that are currently on the market in Flanders. In 75 of the 86 cases, customers must repay money for solar power from a certain amount, according to a formula that is – sometimes well hidden – contained in the energy contract. 450,000 Flemish households with variable or dynamic energy contracts therefore risk having to pay extra, even when their solar power is still worth money on the wholesale market. 150,000 other households have a contract with a fixed – but low sales price upon return.
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As the wholesale prices are currently high enough, as stated, only Octa+ currently charges some customers at the moment to return solar power. Yet many thousands of households are still running the risk of having to pay extra this summer, especially when it becomes a sunny summer. Sunny weather increases the chance of an oversup range on the market on the market.
