The end of net metering in 2027 for businesses with solar panels

Dutch net metering ends on 1 January 2027 for connections up to and including 3x80A, businesses included. What changes, what it costs and what to do about it.

Who loses net metering

Net metering is running the meter backwards. Every kWh you export during the day is offset on the annual bill against a kWh you buy in the evening, energy tax included. That stops on 1 January 2027¹, and not gradually: the old plan to phase the scheme out from 2025 was replaced by a stop in one step².

Whether it affects a business depends on the connection.

• A small connection, up to and including 3x80 amps. Only on such a connection may you net meter³. That includes businesses: business customers can have a small connection⁴, and the government names SMEs with a connection of at most 3x80 amps explicitly⁵. Think of a garage, a bakery or an office with panels on the roof.
• A large connection, above 3x80 amps. Here you could never net meter, so nothing changes on 1 January 2027. What solar panels earn on such a connection depends on the contract, the price per quarter hour and the export limit.

You can tell a large connection by its contracted transport capacity: a number of kW in the contract with the grid operator, which measures consumption per quarter hour. The rest of this article is about the small connection.

What changes on 1 January 2027

From 2027 the supplier no longer offsets exported power against what you buy³. You pay the full price with energy tax for every kWh you buy, and you get a compensation for what you export. Three rules apply.

1. Until 1 January 2030 the compensation is at least half the power price, excluding energy tax and VAT³.
2. Averaged over a month, the compensation may not be negative¹, not even when the price drops below zero on sunny afternoons.
3. Feed-in costs remain. In the model contract the supplier has charged them per exported kWh since 2026⁶, and they can be higher than the compensation³.

Worked example: a small business with 25 kWp

What that costs is easiest to see in an example. Say a small business uses 30,000 kWh a year and has 25 kWp on its roof, good for about 23,000 kWh. It uses 9,000 kWh of that directly, exports 14,000 kWh and buys 21,000 kWh. Power costs €0.10 per kWh before taxes, and from 2027 the supplier pays the legal minimum compensation of €0.05.

The energy tax uses the 2026 rates: €0.09161 per kWh up to 10,000 kWh and €0.06671 above that⁷. Feed-in costs are left out, because suppliers already charge them today.

The difference is €1,709 a year: every exported kWh earns over €0.12 less than now. A kWh the business uses itself keeps its value. It saves €0.10 of power and €0.067 of energy tax, almost €0.17 together. From 2027 an exported kWh earns €0.05.

What to do about it

Without net metering, what solar panels earn depends on how much of the power the business uses itself. A sunny day shows where the room is: for most of the day the roof generates more than the business uses, and that surplus goes to the grid.

There are three levers to get more out of that surplus.

1. Moving consumption to the middle of the day, such as a heat pump that preheats during the day, a company car that charges while the sun shines or equipment that runs in the afternoon instead of the evening.
2. A battery that keeps the surplus for the evening. How to size a battery is explained in sizing a battery for a business.
3. Comparing feed-in contracts. The compensation per exported kWh and the feed-in costs together decide what exporting earns net, and they differ per supplier. The floor of half the power price applies until 1 January 2030³.

For an adviser the question is then manageable: calculate 2027 without net metering, and see how much of the output the client can use themselves. An annual total is not enough for that. Whether a heat pump or charge point catches the midday sun only shows when you put consumption and output side by side per quarter hour.

What Wattix does here

Wattix calculates a year quarter hour by quarter hour. Per contract you set the feed-in compensation and any feed-in costs, and per scenario whether a battery is added. That shows how much of the output the client uses themselves and what the rest earns. How to enter contracts is explained at compare energy contracts, and what Wattix does with solar power at use more of your own solar power.

What else a simulation calculates and how accurate it is, you can read in what an energy simulation is.

“You always have to make assumptions. But a platform like Wattix gives you the freedom to present results to your client in your own way, with the confidence that the underlying calculation model provides the same solid foundation every time.”

Fred Theunissen, De Installatiemakers