Netherlands

How the Dutch market works

The consumer and competition authority ACM (Autoriteit Consument en Markt) supervises the energy market and sets the rules for grid tariffs. Its consumer site ConsuWijzer handles complaints about suppliers. Your electricity is delivered by a regional grid operator, which you cannot choose, while you pick the supplier that sells you the electricity.

That split matters for a battery. The supplier decides your contract, your feed-in compensation and any feed-in costs, while the grid operator receives the registration of your battery and decides how it may connect. RVO explains the battery registration rules on its battery registration page.

Electricity prices and network costs

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) publishes the average consumer tariffs, including VAT. For September 2026 (provisional), the average variable contract price is €0.1487 per kWh and energy tax is €0.11085 per kWh. Adding the two gives about €0.26 per kWh before the fixed charges (our own sum, not a CBS total). CBS lists the supplier fixed charge at €115.23 a year and the network (transport) tariff at €476.87 a year, with a tax reduction of €628.96 a year (CBS: average energy tariffs for consumers).

For dynamic contracts, CBS shows an average variable supply price of €0.2057 per kWh for the same month. Treat all of these as averages: the price on your own contract depends on the supplier, the contract type and the month.

Network costs are rising. On 7 October 2026 ACM published the grid operators' tariff proposals for 2027, which would raise transport costs on the regional networks by about 20% on average, or about €89 a year more for electricity for an average household. ACM said it would decide in November 2026 (ACM: tariff proposals 2027).

A larger change is under discussion. On 8 October 2026 ACM published a draft decision that would introduce time- and volume-dependent network tariffs for households from 1 January 2029, with about one third of the network tariff fixed and about two thirds depending on how much electricity you use and when. The final decision is expected in early 2027, so this is not yet in force (ACM: draft decision).

Dynamic contracts and what suits a battery

A battery earns money by moving electricity from cheap hours to expensive hours, so the contract matters as much as the hardware. On a fixed or ordinary variable contract the price barely changes during the day, which leaves a battery with little to arbitrage. On a dynamic contract the price follows the wholesale market and can be very low or even negative at sunny or windy hours.

We explain the arithmetic, including why a battery cannot save more than you use, in how a home battery saves money, and the contract side in dynamic energy contracts and how to actually save and negative electricity prices explained. Dutch taxes also shape the result: see the energy tax point in the VAT and tax section below.

ACM warns that home batteries are technically and financially complicated products and that sales material often paints an overly positive picture of returns. It advises against buying after an unsolicited call or a social media ad, and to take extra care if you borrow money to pay for one (ACM warning, 16 December 2024).

The end of net metering on 1 January 2027

Until now the salderingsregeling lets a household with solar panels offset the electricity it feeds back against the electricity it takes from the grid, kWh for kWh. The law ending it (Wet beëindiging salderingsregeling voor elektriciteit, Stb. 2025-17) takes effect on 1 January 2027 (Ondernemersplein). Netting remains possible until 31 December 2026 (Rijksoverheid).

From 2027 your supplier no longer nets. You pay energy tax and VAT on all electricity you take from the supplier, you keep the benefit on electricity you generate and use directly, and you receive a compensation for what you feed back. ConsuWijzer notes that your own contract may still promise netting after that date, so read what your contract says (ACM ConsuWijzer).

For a battery this changes the maths. Once feeding back is worth much less than the price of buying, using your own solar output yourself becomes more valuable, and storing midday surplus for the evening is the obvious way to do that. Whether it pays back for you depends on how much you export, what your contract pays and what the battery costs, so use our calculator and your own meter data before you rely on any figure.

Feed-in compensation and feed-in costs

Until 1 January 2030, the compensation your supplier pays must be at least 50% of the bare supply tariff (the price without taxes). The Rijksoverheid page does not say what applies after that date, so we do not either (Rijksoverheid: salderingsregeling).

Suppliers set the rate and state it in your contract. On a fixed tariff they may not change it during the contract, on a variable tariff it can change at stated intervals with at least one month's notice, and on a dynamic tariff it follows the market and can change every hour or quarter-hour (ACM ConsuWijzer).

Feed-in costs (terugleverkosten) are a separate matter. The Rijksoverheid says suppliers may only charge the costs they actually incur to process the returned electricity, and that ACM supervises this. ConsuWijzer warns that these costs can be higher than the compensation you receive. We could not confirm from official sources how feed-in costs interact with the 50% minimum, so compare the net amount per kWh, not the headline rate.

Batteries without solar panels

A battery without panels can only charge from the grid, so its value comes entirely from the gap between cheap and expensive hours. That works best with a dynamic contract, and it is the scenario where a battery is closest to electricity trading. Our guide can you use a home battery without solar panels covers the practical side.

We found no Dutch law that forbids a battery without solar panels, and the registration duty applies to batteries in general (see below). In December 2024 the grid operators' association Netbeheer Nederland proposed conditions that would treat self-consumption batteries and trading batteries differently, but we saw no sign that these have become rules.

The tax treatment is the awkward part. As Solar Magazine reported on 4 June 2026, electricity bought from the grid and stored in a home battery is taxed with energy tax on the way in and again when it is fed back, and the minister said it is technically not possible to track which stored electricity was already taxed (Solar Magazine). We could not confirm this from a government source, so ask your supplier how it treats stored electricity.

VAT and energy tax

Solar panels delivered and installed on or at a home carry 0% VAT, and you cannot reclaim VAT on them (Belastingdienst: solar panels). That zero rate does not extend to batteries. The Belastingdienst's battery page uses a price that includes 21% VAT as its example.

A private household that uses a battery only privately is not treated as a VAT entrepreneur and cannot reclaim the VAT. The Belastingdienst describes a narrow route for people who trade electricity as an entrepreneur: the battery has an energy management system and you have a dynamic contract, your supplier pays you for electricity you feed back, the invoice and the contract are in your name, and you are not in the small business scheme (KOR). If you reclaim all the VAT and later use the battery privately, you must pay VAT on that private use in your year-end return (Belastingdienst: home battery and VAT). Get advice before you rely on this route.

Politics may change this, but not yet. According to Solar Magazine on 6 October 2026, the cabinet told the House of Representatives it will not introduce a zero VAT rate for home batteries, because home batteries are not on the list of goods that the European VAT Directive allows to be zero-rated and because a generic zero rate ignores how a battery is used.

Grants and support

We found no national grant for a home battery. The ISDE subsidy run by RVO does not list one for 2026, and RVO warned on 19 October 2026 about a fake email that promised a €1,850 battery subsidy in its name. RVO says it never asks for money by email, WhatsApp or phone, and that a genuine local scheme would be published on an official website with an opening date, a budget and conditions (report on the RVO warning).

Provinces and municipalities do run some schemes, and they are small and fill up fast. An example is the province of Flevoland, which pays 25% of eligible costs up to €1,250 per home for a 5 to 20 kWh battery, with a minimum investment of €3,000 excluding VAT. It is for homes with solar panels, the battery must be registered on Energieleveren.nl, and it limits when the battery may feed back or charge. The 2026 budget ran out after the round that opened on 1 October 2026, and the second half of the budget opens in early 2027 (Solar Magazine, 28 August 2026; later update). We checked only this one scheme, so ask your own municipality and province.

Registering a battery with the grid operator

RVO states that anyone with a battery system of 0.8 kW or more must register it. For a home battery, you do this through Energieleveren.nl, where registration has been done since 7 May 2024, and batteries registered before that date had to be entered again. Registration helps grid operators see where batteries are and how much capacity they have (RVO: register your battery system; Energieleveren.nl).

RVO's page does not state penalties or the exact legal basis, and we could not verify them. In practice your installer usually does the registration, so ask them to confirm in writing that it is done. A December 2024 trade report estimated that fewer than 40% of installed home batteries were registered, so do not assume it happens automatically.

Batteries are also an EU topic: we explain an EU rule on registering larger home batteries in this news article.

Safety, wiring and fire standards

We found no Dutch law that sets a specific fire-safety standard for a home battery today. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is planning uniform safety rules for stationary lithium and sodium battery systems of at least 20 kWh, based on PGS 37-1 and PGS 37-2 and written into the Omgevingswet. The planned date moved from 1 January 2027 to 1 January 2028, and home batteries are excluded: the ministry says they fit better under the Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (Solar Magazine).

For installed batteries, the practical rule is to use a competent electrician and follow the manufacturer's instructions. According to a supplier's explanation, the Dutch wiring standard NEN 1010 is binding for recognised installers (we did not verify this against the standard itself), so ask which standards they work to and for a written confirmation of the installation. Where you put the battery matters too; see are home batteries safe and can you put a home battery outside.

Tell your home insurer and your mortgage lender before installation and ask, in writing, whether the battery or its location affects your cover. We could not find an official Dutch rule on this, so treat it as our advice, not a legal fact.

Plug-in batteries

Plug-in batteries, sold in the Netherlands as stekkerbatterijen, are usually limited to 800 W and have an automatic shut-off if they get too hot (NOS, 7 April 2026). We found no Dutch law that explicitly allows or forbids them, and a supplier page says NEN 1010 binds installers but not consumers, which creates a grey area (Zonneplan). That page is from a seller, so treat it as an interpretation.

Brandweer Nederland (the fire services) is worried about their growing popularity because no installer is involved. It advises against placing them in an escape route, making sure they can release heat, keeping flammable material away and having a smoke detector. That is advice, not law (NOS). RVO's registration page does not mention plug-in batteries, but its threshold is 0.8 kW, so an 800 W unit would reach it; check before you buy. Our comparison of plug-in and installed home batteries and the plug-in home battery revolution explain the trade-offs.

Outside the Netherlands

Rules, tariffs and incentives for home batteries differ from country to country, so do not apply the figures on this page to a home elsewhere. Belgium and Ireland have their own guides, and we are adding more.

Common questions about Netherlands