Eneco is now the first of the major Dutch energy companies to announce that it will start offering dynamic energy contracts, where customers can pay the current hourly prices for electricity and daily prices for gas. Depending on the demand for different energy products, the prices can vary hugely, but the energy company says that this can give customers greater control over their energy usage at home.
Eneco, one of the Netherlands' most well-known energy firms, which serves more than 2 million customers across the country, is changing its pricing model. The company has explained that by offering the new, dynamic utility contracts, they can give their customers more control over their at-home energy usage. Eneco updating customers when prices are low will mean that customers can make informed decisions about when to use high-energy appliances such as washing machines or e-bike chargers during that time.
According to the AD, Eneco stated that with renewable energy sources increasing their output, the price of energy in the Netherlands can fluctuate regularly. This can benefit customers when electricity prices are low due to high availability of, for example, solar or wind energy. By having a dynamic contract, customers can then adjust their consumption accordingly.
While Eneco is one of the first large energy companies in the country to offer dynamic contracts, fixed and variable contracts have already been available in the Netherlands for a number of years. The difference between variable and dynamic contracts is that dynamic contracts see prices updated at much shorter intervals - for example, charging gas at the price of that day - whereas variable contracts may set the price per month or per quarter.
According to the AD, Eneco has already started offering dynamic energy contracts to customers who do not have solar panels on their house. The company told the newspaper that they hope to have systems in place to also allow customers with solar panels to take advantage of dynamic energy contracts from October onwards.
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