If you have a home charge point through your employer, and it is linked to the Stroohm LMS platform, you are probably entitled to a refund for charging sessions.
In this article, we explain how this works and at what rates you get a refund based on the CREG rates, a rate at which varies monthly according to fluctuations in energy prices to stay as close as possible to market reality.
HOW DO ELECTRICITY PRICES WORK?
As in other products, there are different markets for buying electricity. To hedge your needs (baseload) in the future, you can buy on ENDEX. For short-term markets, there is BELPEX to have enough for your consumption on an hourly basis. And then there is the imbalance market on a quarterly basis that gives prices. Quite a complex business.
As a consumer, there are not 1 but 3 different prices for residential on the Belgian market as green power certificates depend on each region. After all, there are no windmills and few solar panels in Brussels so prices are always lower in this region.
Also important to understand is that the market price for a variable contract is only known after the end of the month. After all, it is a monthly average for that month. The CREG can only publish this after the end. So you can never apply January’s tariff to January because it was not yet known. We are obliged to always apply past tariffs to the current month. Consequently, there is some delay on refunds. With rising prices, you get underpaid first. In the case of falling prices, you are still over-refunded afterwards. That’s how the system works. In addition, there is no click system on electricity, so residential prices also fall back completely when wholesale prices fall.
We work exclusively with the CREG tariffs that calculate average tariffs in the market for a family with a single meter and 8000kWh annual consumption (page 5 of the boardtable, bottom table). So there are cheaper but also more expensive supply contracts available in the market. CREG relies only on new supply contracts, while older fixed contracts are significantly lower currently.
HOW DOES STROOHM CALCULATE THE TARIFF PER KWH?
The tariffs are based on CREG board tariffs, we take a 3-month average, with a 2-month lag, based on the rule below:
the three (3) month average prices of August, September, October of year N-1 form the basis for the reimbursement of electricity consumed during the first quarter of year N.
the three (3) month average prices of November, December of year N-1 and January N form the basis for reimbursement of electricity consumed during the second quarter of year N.
the three (3) month average prices of February, March, April of year N form the basis for the reimbursement of electricity consumed during the third quarter of year N.
the three (3) month average prices of May, June, July of year N form the basis for the reimbursement of the electricity consumed during the fourth quarter of year N.
In October 2022, for example, this is about 41 cents incl VAT for Flanders, based on the May/June/July 2022 average, and this continues until the end of December 2022. From 1 January 2023, the August/September/October average will then apply.
The tariff based on the recently introduced capacity tariff found on page 5 (highest value average commercial electricity price (all in) between “classic counter with EV” and “digital counter with EV”) has been applied since the beginning of 2023.
Home charging rate period October/November/December 2022 (applicable to fixed charge points on the Stroohm Last Mile Solutions platform)
Flanders 0.41
Wallonia 0.43
Brussels 0.40
(prices incl VAT, in euro per kWh and incl all taxes)
Home charge tariff period January/February/March 2023 (applicable to fixed charge points on the Stroohm Last Mile Solutions platform)
Flanders 0.59
Wallonia 0.63
Brussels 0.58
(prices incl VAT, in euro per kWh and incl all taxes)
Home charge tariff period April/May/June 2023 (applicable to fixed charge points on the Stroohm Last Mile Solutions platform)
Flanders 0.55
Wallonia 0.60
Brussels 0.54
(prices incl VAT, in euro per kWh and incl all taxes)
Home charge tariff period July/August/September 2023 (applicable to fixed charge points on the Stroohm Last Mile Solutions platform)
Flanders 0.39
Wallonia 0.45
Brussels 0.41
(prices incl VAT, in euro per kWh and incl all taxes)
Home charge tariff period October/November/December 2023 (applicable to fixed charge points on the Stroohm Last Mile Solutions platform)
Flanders 0.30
Wallonia 0.36
Brussels 0.32
(prices incl VAT, in euro per kWh and incl all taxes)
Home charge tariff period Jan/Feb/March 2024 (applicable to fixed charge points on the Stroohm Last Mile Solutions platform)
Flanders 0.30
Wallonia 0.36
Brussels 0.32
(prices incl VAT, in euro per kWh and incl all taxes)
Home charge tariff period Apr/May/June 2024 (applicable to fixed charge points on the Stroohm Last Mile Solutions platform)
Flanders 0.30
Wallonia 0.37
Brussels 0.33
(prices incl VAT, in euro per kWh and incl all taxes)
The delay of 2 months is a buffer for the availability of the CREG board table, as it is not always published with a fixed regularity.
https://www.creg.be/nl/professionals/marktwerking-en-monitoring/boordtabel