Grid operator Fluvius will send notices of default for the first time this year to stubborn refusals of a digital meter.
About 1 percent of the network operator’s customers refuse a digital meter for electricity or natural gas. Since the roll-out started in 2019, Fluvius has always tried to convince those customers with letters and persuasion.
But that is about to change. For several weeks now, Fluvius has been sending so-called last chance letters to stubborn refusers of a digital meter. Refusers are once again informed of what they risk if they refuse the installation of a digital meter by means of a registered letter.
Anyone who still stubbornly refuses after that last letter will receive a notice of default in the mail. It is the first time that the network operator will take this step. “Of course we hope that we will not have to do that, but it will undoubtedly be the case in a number of cases,” said spokesperson Björn Verdoodt.
According to the procedure, two such notices of default follow – including costs of several hundred euros – and finally a summons, resulting in a case before the court.
Postponement for solar panels
Meanwhile, at the end of December, Fluvius had already installed more than 2.16 million digital meters, or about a third of what needs to be done. The aim is to achieve 80 percent by the end of next year and a complete switch from classic to digital by 2029.
To be clear: everyone eventually gets a digital meter. Only those who have solar panels that were installed before 2021 can be postponed until 2025. This does not apply to solar panels older than 15 years.
Electrosensitivity is not a valid reason to refuse the digital meter. After all, a wired digital electricity meter with an external antenna has been available since the beginning of this year. A wired digital gas meter will follow in 202
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