Market regulator ACM to investigate compensation for excess solar power

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) will conduct additional research into the costs and compensation of solar power. According to the regulator, there are solar panel owners who are giving more electricity back than they are taking and then have to pay for this extra solar power. The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, wants to ban this in the new energy bill that is still being developed.

This concerns a practice that the Volkskrant and price comparison site Keuze.nl recently reported. At some energy suppliers, the costs for returning solar power had become higher than the compensation consumers received. This made it more attractive for some homes with solar panels to turn them off.

The regulator wants to discuss this with the sector. According to the regulator, this is about energy companies charging reasonable fees and handing out fair compensation. "Under current legislation, energy suppliers are free to determine their rates as long as they are not unreasonable in view of the underlying costs."

ACM thinks that they will be able to release new information on this subject soon. They had already conducted research into the fees set by large energy providers. The conclusion at the time was that the fees were not unreasonable, but since then, the costs of returning solar power have increased across the market.

Overstappen.nl noticed recently that solar panel owners receive less and less for the surplus electricity they supply back to the grid. The comparison site calculated that the average compensation for giving power back had almost halved in a year.

Energy suppliers have long argued that the netting scheme requires them to incur high costs. This scheme allows solar panel owners to deduct excess electricity generated from their own consumption at other times of the year.

A bill to abolish the netting scheme had already been introduced in The Hague, but the Senate voted against it earlier this year. Since then, energy companies have not only lowered the compensation fees but also started charging special costs for restoring power to the grid.