The Dutch consumers authority ACM says it is again looking at the fees which solar panel owners have to pay to deliver excess electricity back to the national grid.

In some cases, the price that people are paid for this excess electricity is now lower than the fees they have to pay to feed it back. Parliament is currently processing legislation that will make this practice illegal.

The ACM earlier looked into the fees charged by the four biggest energy suppliers and concluded that they were not unreasonable, given the costs that the companies make. Since then, however, the costs have gone up across all suppliers and this requires extra focus, the agency said.

The previous government wanted to phase out the current ruling which allows solar panel owners to subtract the amount of energy they have fed into the grid from their own usage, but the senate voted against it in February.

The new coalition partners, however, have agreed to stop the regulation in one go in 2027 and say this will generate some €621 million in additional tax income for the treasury. 

Almost one in three Dutch households now have solar panels on their roofs, according to grid management company Netbeheer Nederland.