Energy Act (Energiewet): what changed on 1 January 2026?

The Energy Act (Energiewet) entered into force on 1 January 2026 and replaced the Electricity Act 1998 (Elektriciteitswet 1998) and the Gas Act (Gaswet) with a single statute for the electricity and gas systems. It is mostly a reordering of existing rules around the end user, not a new set of obligations for households or a fast lane for every business that wants more grid capacity.

Four changes matter most in practice. Energy data is now governed by an explicit consent framework: a supplier or service provider may only access consumption data with the customer’s permission, and the customer has a right to their own data. Active customers — households and businesses that generate, store or supply flexibility as well as consume — are given a defined legal position, and energy sharing between customers is provided for. Contracting rules are tightened: suppliers must give clear information about the type of contract, including dynamic pricing, and about the consequences of switching, and the rules on termination charges are anchored in the new framework. And the Authority for Consumers and Markets (Autoriteit Consument & Markt, ACM) is given broader supervisory and enforcement powers.

For businesses the more pressing issue sits alongside the Act rather than inside it. Grid congestion means that a connection or an increase in transport capacity can take years in large parts of the country. The legal instruments that exist — congestion management, flexible transport arrangements and the ACM’s priority framework for allocating capacity — determine what is achievable and when. That is a legal question before it is a technical one.

What changed on 1 January 2026?

The Energy Act brought the rules for electricity and gas together in one statute and rebuilt the market rules around the customer. In daily practice the most visible changes are about contracts, data and the position of customers who also produce or store energy.

Which laws does the Energy Act replace?

The Energy Act replaces the Electricity Act 1998 and the Gas Act. The technical rules that grid operators must follow, the so-called codes, were rewritten at the same time.

The ACM, the regulator for the energy market, adopted new codes for electricity and gas under the Energy Act. According to the ACM, thirteen new codes replace most of the twenty national codes that applied before, and the approved changes are policy-neutral: they align terminology and article numbers with the new Act rather than change the substance. For you this means that a contract, connection agreement or general terms that still refer to the Electricity Act 1998 or the Gas Act are not automatically invalid. They do refer to rules that now sit elsewhere, and it is worth updating those references at the next renewal.

Some rules that used to be in the Electricity Act and Gas Act now sit in lower regulations, such as the Energy Regulation (Energieregeling). The ACM’s rules on termination fees, for example, are now based on the Energy Regulation. When you look up a rule, check which level it sits at: the Act itself, a decree, a ministerial regulation or an ACM code.

What rights do energy customers have under the Act?

Customers keep the familiar protections: reasonable tariffs, clear contract information and the right to switch. The Act adds a clearer position for active customers and a framework for sharing energy.

Suppliers must charge reasonable tariffs for electricity and gas and explain clearly what type of contract you are entering into: fixed, variable or dynamic. With a dynamic contract the price follows the wholesale market, often per hour, so your costs depend directly on when you use electricity. Before you sign, the supplier must make that risk clear. Households and small business customers must also be offered a model contract. The ACM adopted new model contracts in December 2025, so that offers are easier to compare.

An active customer is a customer who does more than consume: for example a household with solar panels and a home battery, or a business that offers flexibility to the grid. The Act gives these customers a defined legal position. That matters for the contracts they can conclude, the data they may share with service providers and the way their feed-in is settled.

If the power fails for longer than four hours, you are entitled to compensation from the grid operator. The ACM lists this right for all customers, including business customers.

Who controls your energy data?

You do. Under the Energy Act, the holder of the data right — the grid user or end customer — decides who may access their energy data, and a party such as a supplier or app provider needs your permission.

The data itself is kept in registers by grid operators and metering parties. Since 1 January 2026 a central data exchange entity designated under the Act, Het Normo, controls access to those registers. If you want a service provider to see your consumption data, for example to advise on a heat pump or battery, the request runs through that entity on the basis of your consent. The entity must take appropriate technical and organisational measures for data protection and security.

The general data protection rules of the GDPR (AVG) continue to apply alongside the Energy Act. For a household, consumption data can reveal when you are at home. For a business, it can reveal production patterns. Check which permissions you have given in the past, and withdraw those you no longer need.

The Energy Act does not give renewable producers general priority grid access, standard connection deadlines or new subsidies for local energy projects. Those claims circulate, but the Act itself contains no such general priority or subsidy scheme. Where priority exists, it follows from the ACM’s prioritisation framework for congested grids, which we discuss below for businesses.

What does the Energy Act mean for households?

For households the Act mainly confirms and organises existing rights: clear contracts, limited termination fees, control over your data and a defined position if you produce energy yourself. It does not introduce new personal obligations or penalties based on how much energy you use.

Can you switch supplier, and what does it cost?

Yes. You can switch supplier with a notice period of at most one month. With a variable or dynamic contract you pay no termination fee. With a fixed-price contract the fee is limited to the loss the supplier actually suffers.

Since 1 June 2023, under ACM rules, the termination fee for a fixed-price contract concluded by a consumer may not exceed the supplier’s loss caused by the early termination. In simple terms: the remaining expected consumption until the end date, multiplied by the difference between your contract tariff and the current tariff for a comparable new contract. If the current tariff is equal to or higher than yours, the supplier suffers no loss and you pay nothing.

The ACM also lists situations in which no fee is due at all. These include termination after the contract has ended, a contract that contains no termination fee clause, and termination by the supplier itself. A fee quote that your supplier gives you remains valid for two months, so you can compare it with a new offer before you decide.

Contracts concluded before 1 June 2023 keep the older termination rules. Check the date of your contract before you calculate what switching will cost.

What happens to solar panels, feed-in and energy sharing?

The net-metering scheme (salderingsregeling) ends on 1 January 2027. From then on you receive a feed-in compensation from your supplier for all electricity you return to the grid, instead of offsetting it against your consumption.

According to the government, until 2030 that compensation must be at least 50% of the bare supply tariff for electricity. Many suppliers also charge feed-in costs (terugleverkosten). These may only cover the actual costs the supplier incurs, and the ACM supervises this. Compare offers on both elements: the compensation you receive and the costs you pay for feeding in.

To feed electricity back into the grid you need a smart or digital meter from 2026, according to the ACM. A smart meter measures consumption and feed-in separately. You also have to report your installation to your supplier and your grid operator.

Energy sharing is new. Since 2026 you can share electricity with another household, for example a family member. According to the ACM, both parties need a smart meter and, under the arrangements now on offer, a contract with the same supplier. The conditions differ per supplier, so read the terms before you agree to share.

Does the Act impose new obligations on households?

No general new obligations. The Energy Act does not impose energy-efficiency standards, carbon-footprint targets or fines on private individuals based on their consumption.

What does matter for households are practical points: your meter must be suitable for feed-in, you must report a solar installation, and from 2027 your income from solar panels depends on the feed-in terms in your contract. If you rent your home, the rules on energy performance and rent sit in tenancy law, which we discuss in other articles.

What does the Energy Act mean for businesses?

For businesses the Act changes less than the debate suggests. The real constraints are grid capacity and the energy-saving rules under environmental law, and both need attention alongside the Act.

What can you do about grid congestion?

Your options depend on three instruments: the ACM’s prioritisation framework, congestion management and flexible use of the grid. A refusal or delay by the grid operator can be challenged before the ACM.

Grid operators used to allocate scarce capacity strictly in order of request: first come, first served. In April 2024 the ACM concluded that this did not always work well and introduced a prioritisation framework from 1 October 2024. The ACM has since adopted a new framework so that grid operators can continue to give priority after 1 January 2026, when the Energy Act took effect.

The framework knows three priority categories:

• Congestion relievers: projects that directly free up space on the grid, so that others can connect.
• Safety: activities essential for security, such as hospitals, emergency services, defence and police.
• Basic needs: projects for housing, education and public transport, among others.

An ordinary commercial project, such as a factory extension or a fleet of electric vans, usually falls outside these categories. Being a renewable producer does not in itself give priority. For most businesses the relevant question is therefore not whether they qualify for priority, but how they can use the grid more flexibly.

Congestion management means that the grid operator can require large users in congested areas to offer flexibility in exchange for compensation. The ACM has also introduced alternative transport rights, such as time-bound rights, under which a large user pays lower network costs in return for not using the grid at peak times. Group contracts for transport capacity, for example for a business park, are being developed.

If the grid operator refuses a connection or capacity, or does not respond within a reasonable time, you can submit a dispute to the ACM. The ACM has a dispute resolution procedure for disputes with grid operators and has issued decisions on the duty to connect. Before you start, collect the correspondence, the request you submitted and the reasons the grid operator gave.

Which energy-saving obligations apply to your business?

The energy-saving obligation does not come from the Energy Act but from environmental law under the Environment and Planning Act (Omgevingswet). It applies to business locations that use 50,000 kWh of electricity or 25,000 m³ of natural gas (or an equivalent) or more per year.

A location above these thresholds must take all energy-saving measures with a payback period of five years or less. You can comply in two ways: take all qualifying measures you identify yourself, or take all applicable measures from the Recognised Energy Saving Measures List (Erkende Maatregelenlijst, EML) for your sector. The rules are in the Environmental Activities Decree (Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving) and the Buildings Decree (Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving).

Two related duties apply. The notification obligation requires you to report the measures taken to the competent authority every four years; according to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) the most recent deadline was 1 December 2023. The investigation obligation applies to larger locations, using at least 10,000,000 kWh of electricity or 170,000 m³ of natural gas per year, and also runs in four-year cycles.

The Energy Act does not make energy audits mandatory for all businesses, and it does not attach fines to energy use as such. The obligations described here depend on your consumption and come from environmental law. Supervision lies with the competent authority (bevoegd gezag) under environmental law, not with the ACM.

Which protections apply to small business customers?

Small business customers enjoy some of the same protections as consumers. Micro-enterprises, with fewer than 10 employees and less than €2 million in turnover or balance sheet total, have extra protection.

All business customers are entitled to reasonable tariffs, a free smart meter installed by the grid operator and compensation for outages longer than four hours. Business customers with a small connection can choose between fixed, variable and dynamic contracts, and must be offered a model contract. A supplier may not simply terminate the contract because of an unpaid bill.

For micro-enterprises the ACM goes further. They can annul a contract if they were misled, and they pay a termination fee only under specific conditions. If you run a small business and signed an energy contract after an aggressive sales call, check whether these rules apply to you.

Disputes with a supplier go first to the supplier itself. If that does not lead to a solution, consumers can turn to the Energy Disputes Committee (Geschillencommissie Energie) and business customers to the Business Energy Disputes Committee (Geschillencommissie Energie Zakelijk). Larger companies with individually negotiated contracts usually fall outside these protections: their position depends on the contract and on general contract law.

What should you check as a household?

For households the Act mainly affects your contract, your solar panels and your data. These checks cover the points that change your costs.

• Check whether your contract is fixed, variable or dynamic, and whether it was concluded before or after 1 June 2023.
• Ask your supplier for a termination fee quote before switching; the quote stays valid for two months.
• Compare the feed-in compensation and the feed-in costs that will apply after net metering ends on 1 January 2027.
• Check that your meter measures supply and feed-in separately, and that your solar installation is reported to your supplier and grid operator.
• Withdraw data permissions for apps and advisers you no longer use.

What should you check as a business?

For businesses the main risks sit in long-running contracts and in grid capacity. Start with these checks before the next price adjustment or expansion.

• Update references to the Electricity Act 1998 and the Gas Act in connection and supply agreements at the next renewal.
• Review price review clauses, take-or-pay obligations and the allocation of grid costs.
• Submit your transport request early, in writing, and ask the grid operator whether your project falls within a priority category.
• Check grid capacity before you sign a lease or purchase agreement for a new location, and consider making it conditional on a connection.
• Check whether your location uses 50,000 kWh of electricity or 25,000 m³ of gas or more per year, which triggers the energy-saving obligation.
• As a small business customer, check whether the micro-enterprise protections and the Business Energy Disputes Committee apply to you.

What can we do for you with the Energy Act?

Our energy lawyer team assists businesses, developers and energy customers with contracts, grid capacity and disputes.

• We review supply, connection and transport agreements and bring them in line with the Energy Act.
• We assess whether your project falls within the ACM prioritisation framework and draft the request to the grid operator.
• We negotiate flexible or alternative transport arrangements with the grid operator.
• We submit a dispute with a grid operator about connection or transport to the ACM.
• We check a termination fee or contract terms and take a supplier dispute to the disputes committee.
• We include grid-capacity conditions in lease and purchase agreements for new locations.

Summary

• The Energy Act entered into force on 1 January 2026 and replaced the Electricity Act 1998 and the Gas Act; most changes in the technical codes are policy-neutral.
• You control your energy data: suppliers and service providers need your permission, and access runs through a central data exchange entity.
• Termination fees for fixed-price contracts are limited to the supplier’s actual loss; variable and dynamic contracts carry no fee.
• Net metering ends on 1 January 2027; until 2030 the feed-in compensation must be at least 50% of the bare supply tariff.
• For businesses the key issues are grid congestion (ACM priority framework, congestion management) and the energy-saving obligation under environmental law, which applies from 50,000 kWh or 25,000 m³ per year.

Frequently asked questions