Energy Ombudsman goes to the Economic Inspectorate: ‘Some suppliers are cheating’

It’s also raining complaints about Octa+ at De Inspecteur. This supplier recently charged solar panel owners with an inverter meter extra.

Anyone who still has a reverse meter will now have to pay 1.5 euros per month for each additional kilovoltampere to “maintain the balance on the grid”. The amount adds up quickly. For listener Hendrik Watté, the cost is about 100 euros per year.

According to Octa+, the new cost is intentionally passed on exclusively to customers with solar panels and an inverter. “Now we have to predict the estimated amount of electricity on the grid every day. A customer with a digital meter can estimate this perfectly. It’s different with an analog meter. It’s almost impossible to say how much the panels are producing.”

The resource covers itself with this additional cost for incorrect forecasts. “We get fines for incorrect predictions. So we charge a lump sum based on the size of the inverter.”

Currently, Octa+ is the only supplier that charges costs exclusively to these customers with solar panels and an inverter. Other suppliers split costs among all customers. According to Ombudsman Eric Hotmann, this is not allowed.

“This practice is inconsistent with the law,” he says. “Octa+ uses misleading information. The company sells it as a mandatory cost from the government. It’s not true.” “For me, this is a unilateral price change. So I will also raise this with the Economic Inspectorate.”