Earn money from your energy consumption: “I made a profit on Saturday”

Five companies in the Netherlands now offer a dynamic energy contract: EnergyZero, Frank Energie, Nieuwe Stroom, EasyEnergy and Tibber. These companies also help you use electricity at the right time, for example by letting you know when the price is advantageous. “It’s a bit like fighting alongside big players,” says Rens Schoorl of Tibber.

The company was launched in the Netherlands a year ago. Tibber was already active in Sweden, Norway and Germany. “Our founders come from the energy industry and they said it was contradictory that all traditional players have a certain percentage to make money,” Schoorl told EditionNL. If energy companies buy electricity for 20 cents, they sell it for 25 cents.” “That is of course the case if you sell a loaf of bread, but the baker does not want you to eat less bread.”

To make money

People should not consume less power, but use it in a different way, says Schoorl. According to him, Tibber therefore wants to help people save. “I find it particularly interesting that you can take advantage of price differences in one day: you pay a different hourly rate.” Prices will be announced one day in advance. “Last Saturday there were sharply negative prices, so if you use electricity, you earn money. At that time there was relatively much wind, a lot of sun and little demand.”

Han Slootweg, professor of Smart Grids at Eindhoven University of Technology, has profited well from these negative prices. “I made some money last Saturday afternoon by charging my car and turning on the washing machines.” He has had a contract with EasyEnergy since March. “Classical energy contracts were not very attractive at the time due to the high gas prices. That’s why I tried.”

To vote

Slootweg thinks that dynamic energy contracts will soon be taken over by large energy suppliers. “I also think that everything will be much more automatic. At EasyEnergy I check the prices myself a day in advance, but I don’t think this will be necessary anymore.”

Still, he doesn’t think dynamic energy contracts will take over the market. “I think it will and it will. Fixed rate and variable rate mortgage. I think it will be the same in the energy market,” he says. “The options multiply and fixed and variable prices can coexist perfectly. It depends on who you prefer.”

Ideal or not?

Such an energy contract, with which you can earn money, may seem ideal. However, Schoorl van Tibber says that the share of wind and solar must be increased to increase the risk of moment with negative prices. It also depends on how many power tools you have. Slootweg, for example, has solar panels and an electric car, but Schoorl lives in an apartment and does not drive electric. “My wife is mainly in the laundry and using my oven.”