Anya Kussé
As a leading player in the energy market, we unburden companies in their energy policy and develop future-proof energy strategies. Our team of experts negotiates, manages and optimizes our customers' energy contracts in a continuous and transparent manner. Supported by AI-driven software, we provide insight into the current and future cost of each MWh. We integrate sustainability into our overall approach and work pragmatically and solution-oriented to support you in the energy transition. Together, we create the most ideal energy landscape for your business.
The surcharge for imbalance charges that energy suppliers charge in many contracts for companies with solar panels is one of the main factors that can lead to a financial hangover. By June 30, large consumers with annual electricity consumption of more than 1GWh must have their contracts for installing solar panels in place. But in the current context with many negative electricity prices, they should take extra care with this and negotiate their energy contract well. Because surcharges on existing energy contracts of up to 40% are no exceptions.
With more and more summer days, electricity prices are increasingly dipping below zero. This happens when the volume of power coming from the many PV plants, among others, exceeds demand. Surplus power injected into the grid at such times can cause significant additional costs.
Whereas they initially bore this themselves, energy suppliers have since shifted the risk of these imbalance costs to the customer, so that today we are seeing huge surcharges on solar panels, up to as much as 40% extra on existing contracts. So what can be a painful and often unforeseen cost. Especially when you know that the clauses about these extra costs in energy contracts are not always very clear or specific, making you - with one extra sentence - almost sign a blank check to the energy supplier.
So the business case for solar panels is coming under pressure. It is therefore crucial for companies to map in detail exactly what their consumption is, in order to adjust their production accordingly. Businesses that do need to regularly feed surplus power into the grid can take a number of measures to reduce costs:
1. Thorough energy contract overhaul
Often, it pays to renegotiate current contracts. The negative prices on an hourly basis occur because at specific times throughout the day the supply of power exceeds the demand. But if we look not at those peaks, but at the average prices per day, we see that they do remain positive. So companies that inject a lot of power may be better off negotiating an energy contract without hourly billing.
2. Batteries
Batteries can store excess power, but they are a hefty investment that not every business can recoup.
3. Share surpluses
In addition, you can share power surpluses with other branches of your company or even with other companies. However, with energy sharing you have to take into account a few snags: it is only possible within Flanders, you need digital meters that measure consumption at quarter-hourly level and some suppliers make energy sharing so expensive that it is no longer profitable.