News item | 09-12-2022 | 3:30 pm
The elaboration of the scheme for the temporary price cap has been completed. This means that the price cap can start on 1 January 2023. The rates and usage caps are the same as previously announced. The scheme has a margin test from the start to determine the maximum profit margin for each company in advance when the price cap is implemented. This prevents overcompensation as a result of the price cap. In addition, the cabinet is urgently developing a separate scheme for households with a block connection.
Rates unchanged
The temporary price ceiling applies for the whole of 2023, for all households and other customers with a small-scale consumer connection to the electricity and gas network or a connection to a heating network. Due to an adjustment to the scheme, customers of energy suppliers without their own license now also fall under the price ceiling. The price and consumption ceilings are as previously announced: €1.45 per cubic meter (m3) of gas up to a consumption of 1200 m3; €0.40 per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity up to a consumption of 2900 kWh; €47.38 per gigajoule (GJ) up to a consumption of 37 GJ of heat for households connected to a heating network. For energy consumption above the ceiling, households and other small consumers pay the rate from the energy contract. It is expected that 50 to 60 percent of households will fall below the price ceiling with their entire energy consumption.
More clarity for households with a block connection before the end of the year
The price ceiling is not always a good fit for households that have a collective gas, heat or electricity connection (block connection). That is why the government is urgently working on a separate scheme to help this group with the high energy prices. All necessary data on block connections is currently being collected for this purpose. The government will inform the House of Representatives about the details before the end of the year.
Implementation by energy suppliers
The energy suppliers implement the price cap. Consumers do not have to do anything themselves to qualify for the discount on their energy bill. Because the rates below the price ceiling are lower than the contract prices, the energy suppliers can request an advance through the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). RVO monitors the implementation of the subsidy scheme in the interim. The advance is based on an estimate of the amount of electricity, gas and/or heat that the energy supplier expects to supply and the difference between the contract rates and the price ceiling.
Maximum profit margin
To prevent energy suppliers from making more profit than before as a result of the price cap, a margin test will be introduced from the start of the price cap. This means that a reasonable profit margin is determined for each energy supplier on the basis of the profit (margin) of recent years. Each supplier may disregard one year in which the figures deviate sharply, for example due to corona or the energy crisis. At the final bill, an accountant checks whether the amount received by the energy supplier has been passed on to the consumer in full. If an energy supplier has made more profit than the margin test allows, this excess amount received in subsidy must be repaid.
No unauthorized state aid
The government has maintained close contact with the European Commission when elaborating the price ceiling to ensure that the price ceiling meets the requirements of the European state aid framework. Based on this informal contact, it is hoped that formal approval of the scheme will be received by 15 December at the latest, allowing the first advances to be paid before the end of the year.
Minister Jetten for Climate and Energy: “We have worked very hard in recent months to introduce the price ceiling from 2023. I am pleased that we succeeded in this together with the energy suppliers and all other parties involved under great time pressure. With this price cap, we remove the uncertainty of large price fluctuations for consumers and we provide more certainty about the energy bill.”