#Greenchoice #reverses #offpeak #rates #charges #extra #costs #solar #panel #customers #Economy
21 Feb 2024 at 09:13
Greenchoice will also charge extra costs for generating and supplying solar power. At the same time, the company wants to use cheaper electricity during the day to encourage customers to use electricity when a lot of generated solar energy is available.
Many energy suppliers traditionally apply an off-peak rate, whereby electricity is cheaper at night than during the day. This makes it more economical, for example, to turn on the washing machine late at night. But because we are generating more and more solar power, there is now an abundance of electricity during the day.
Energy suppliers have been struggling for several years with the amount of solar power supplied. They sometimes have to sell them at a loss because there is so much power available. At the same time, a lot of energy is used in the evening. Then there is scarcity.
Greenchoice takes several measures to better coordinate consumption and generation. This includes an electricity rate where you pay 1 cent less for your electricity during the day than at night.
Additional costs for solar panel customers
Furthermore, the company, like five other energy suppliers, imposes additional costs for customers with solar panels. For many other suppliers, the amount depends on the amount of energy generated. Greenchoice has chosen to increase the fixed costs for solar panel owners.
The company will also make abundant solar power supply less attractive. This concerns the price that consumers receive for generated solar power if they generate more than they use.
In the future, they will only receive 5 cents per kilowatt hour. That was previously 8 cents. In recent years, more energy suppliers have reduced feed-in tariffs.
Use in abundance
With these measures, Greenchoice wants to initiate a change in behavior when using available green energy. “We want to move towards a situation in which as many households as possible consume green energy at times when it is available in abundance,” says Greenchoice director Coen de Ruiter.
According to him, despite these measures, customers do not have to regret purchasing their solar panels. The payback period for the panels remains attractive, says Greenchoice.
More frequent feed-in costs and free weekend electricity
Since the summer of 2023, more energy suppliers have introduced such measures. They want to pass on costs incurred due to the imbalance on the power grid to customers who take care of this with their solar panels.
More companies are expected to introduce feed-in costs. This is partly due to the decision of the Senate not to phase out the netting scheme. With this arrangement you can cancel out consumed electricity against generated electricity.
At the beginning of this week, the three major energy suppliers Eneco, Essent and Vattenfall also announced that they were looking at feed-in costs. Some suppliers also come up with creative ways to stimulate the consumption of generated electricity. At Budget Energie, for example, electricity becomes free during summer weekends.
