Electricity label

What an electricity label is

The Energy Regulation (article 2.15) says a supplier states, from 1 May until 1 May of the next year, the generation data of the previous calendar year on or with the bill, and each calendar year on the website. You see the percentage per source, the CO2 emissions and the radioactive waste.

The Energy Act (article 2.7) says the supplier gives that information periodically and free of charge, and that the information for electricity is backed by guarantees of origin. The ACM supervises this and points suppliers to publication on the website and with the annual bill.

Guarantees of origin

A guarantee of origin is a certificate for 1 MWh of renewable electricity. The supplier cancels those certificates for the volume it sells. A Dutch guarantee belongs to Dutch wind or solar. A guarantee from another EU country or Norway belongs to production there. The label describes those certificates, not which electrons physically come out of the socket.

National figure

The ACM does not publish a national stroometiket of electricity supplied. Statistics Netherlands publishes physical electricity production in the Netherlands. That is a different statistic from a stroometiket.

Every supplier

Two separate figures: the renewable share, and the share of renewable electricity with a Dutch guarantee of origin. There is no combined score. A second line, Whole company, appears when the label also prints a different mix for the whole company or group. Sorting and the filter use the household mix.

Where the label states grams per kWh or grams per MWh, that figure is converted exactly to micrograms per kWh (1 gram = 1,000,000 micrograms, 1 gram per MWh = 1,000 micrograms per kWh).

Questions

What is an electricity label?

An electricity label is the yearly statement of the electricity a supplier sold in the previous calendar year: the share per source, the CO2 emissions and the radioactive waste. The Energy Regulation (article 2.15) requires publication on the website and on or with the bill, from 1 May.

What is a guarantee of origin?

A guarantee of origin is a certificate for 1 MWh of renewable electricity. The supplier cancels certificates for the volume it sells. The Energy Act (article 2.7) says the information about sources is backed by those certificates. A Dutch certificate and a foreign certificate are both valid, and they belong to production in different countries.

Does the electricity from the socket come from those sources?

No. The label describes certificates cancelled for the volume sold, not the electrons that physically come out of the socket. That follows from the Energy Act, article 2.7, and from the ACM explanation of guarantees of origin.

Why does a supplier say not found?

Then, on the check date, the website of that supplier had no electricity label with percentages. The table links to the address we looked at. We do not fill in a figure the label does not state itself.

Sources

• Energiewet, artikel 2.7: De leverancier verstrekt de eindafnemer periodiek en kosteloos informatie over de energiebronnen. Die informatie voor elektriciteit wordt onderbouwd met garanties van oorsprong.
• Energieregeling, artikel 2.15: Uiterlijk vanaf 1 mei tot 1 mei van het volgende jaar vermeldt de leverancier op of bij de factuur, en elk kalenderjaar op de website, de opwekkingsgegevens van het voorgaande kalenderjaar: het procentuele aandeel per bron en de milieugevolgen (CO2 en radioactief afval).
• ACM, stroometiket: Leveranciers publiceren het stroometiket op de website en bij de jaarnota. Groene claims worden onderbouwd met garanties van oorsprong bij VertiCer.
• CBS, elektriciteitsproductie
• Open data (JSON, CC BY 4.0)