Some 6 million households benefit from energy price cap; First month cost €1 billion

About 6 million Netherlands households benefited from the price cap on energy the government implemented on January 1. The measure cost the treasury nearly 1 billion euros in January, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), responsible for implementing the price cap, reported on Thursday.

According to the RVO, 62 gas and electricity suppliers applied the energy price cap this month. They cover 8.15 million small-scale electricity consumers and 7.12 million small-scale gas consumers.

The price cap benefited 69 percent of electricity connections and 71 percent of gas connections. “This group, therefore, already profited from the price cap,” the RVO said. Most of the connections not covered by the price caps are people paying tariffs lower than the price cap.

The RVO transferred over 900 million euros in advances to the 62 energy companies in January - 876,733,753 euros for gas and electricity and 31,537,411 for heat.

On top of that, the government also funded a separate compensation scheme for over 500,000 households with a “block connection” - housing like apartments and student rooms that share an electricity and gas connection.

The energy price cap only covers up to a certain gas and electricity usage, and that is measured per connection. So block connections don’t qualify. They’ll therefore get a fixed amount in compensation, the government announced on Wednesday.