The energy transition creates more and more opportunities for consumers to manage energy consumption and energy costs themselves. A lot of attention is currently being paid to the return costs, but there are more and more elements that influence this. Insight into what this means for your energy bill is very important for anyone who has to choose a new energy contract. The energy suppliers are prepared for this with their ‘tailor-made offer’, but the price comparison websites must also prepare for this.
If consumers are looking for a new energy contract, they can always compare offers with the ‘tailor-made offer’ of the energy suppliers, in which both the monthly and annual costs are clearly shown, including any costs of feed-in. Consumers can request a comparable offer from any supplier. Consumers can also consult price comparison websites. These are the two ways to determine which offer best suits their personal situation.
The new Energy Act, which is expected to come into effect next year, will legally regulate that more market parties and more products and services can play a role in the energy transition. This creates more and more opportunities in the energy market for consumers to manage their energy consumption and energy costs themselves. You can choose solar panels, your own charging station, (hybrid) heat pumps, home batteries, all-electric, heat or green gas. Price comparison websites must move along with this. Energie-Nederland calls on price comparison websites to continue investing in this (which will also comply with the new requirements of the Energy Act).
ACM recently called on energy suppliers and price comparison websites to do this in their publication ‘Energy rates in transition’. Independent supervision is important to ensure that this is also properly displayed for consumers on comparison sites. Energie-Nederland is happy to enter into discussions with price comparison websites to arrange things properly for consumers.
The call for uniform design of the costs and offerings of energy suppliers may seem logical, but it makes the necessary innovation in the energy market impossible. However, it is up to individual energy suppliers to make an offer to consumers based on their costs (purchasing, operations, etc.). That is part of the mutual competition. They are not allowed to share this information with each other due to competition law. For that reason, Energie-Nederland is also not concerned with this.
