Double energy tax on your home battery: when do you pay twice?

Last updated 24 October 20267 min read

What changed: New page.

From 2027 your home battery can cost you energy tax twice: when it feeds grid power back. When it does, when it does not, and what the cabinet is doing.

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Up to and including 2026 a home battery does not cost you double energy tax: net metering offsets it. From 1 January 2027 it does, if your battery charges from the grid and feeds that power back later. If you use the stored power yourself, or charge from your own solar, you do not pay twice. There is no fix yet.

What changes, and when?

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Double energy tax is tied to net metering. That scheme ends on 1 January 2027. What that means for your annual bill is in our article on the end of net metering.

What changes, per period

When	What
Up to and including 31 December 2026	Net metering: what you feed back, you offset on your annual bill against what you draw, energy tax included. Double tax does not arise.
From 1 January 2027	Net metering ends. You pay energy tax on all power you draw from the grid. For power you feed back you get a feed-in payment, without energy tax.
Now (October 2026)	The cabinet is looking into whether the double charge can be removed technically after 2026, together with the sector. Nothing has been decided. Before the end of 2026 the House of Representatives hears how the research is going. Whether a fix comes depends on what is technically possible and whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

How does double energy tax arise?

The cabinet describes the route in four steps:

Your battery charges power from the grid. You pay energy tax on that power.
The battery stores the power.
The battery feeds the power back to the grid. You get no energy tax back on it.
Later you draw power from the grid again and pay energy tax again.

How double energy tax arises when a home battery feeds grid power back, from 2027 — The route in four steps: grid, battery, grid, home. You pay energy tax when charging and when drawing again later, and get none back when feeding in. Up to and including 2026 net metering offset this.

Up to and including 2026 that falls away, because step 3 is offset on your annual bill against step 4. From 2027 that no longer happens. The energy tax from step 1 is then lost to you.

When do you not pay twice?

Double energy tax does not apply by default to every battery. The cabinet names three situations in which you do not pay twice. The fourth row is the situation where it does happen.

When you pay twice, and when you do not

Situation	Up to and including 2026	From 2027
Own solar power → battery → use yourself	No energy tax	No energy tax
Grid power → battery → use yourself	Once, when drawn from the grid	Once, when drawn from the grid
Own solar power → battery → feed back	You pay no energy tax	You pay no energy tax
Grid power → battery → feed back → draw again later	Not twice, thanks to net metering	Twice: you do not get back the tax from the charging step

Source: the cabinet's answer to parliamentary questions, 23 September 2026. See the list of sources below.

Not sure whether your battery feeds grid power back? Put your situation to us, and we will look at the steering that suits you.

What does it cost per kWh?

It concerns the energy tax on every kWh your battery charges from the grid and then feeds back:

2026: 9.161 cents per kWh, excluding VAT. Because of net metering you do not notice it now.
2027 (proposal): 8.80 cents per kWh, excluding VAT, for the first 10,000 kWh. Including VAT that is about 10.6 cents (our calculation: × 1.21). The 2027 Tax Plan is still with parliament.

Worked example (2027, proposal). Assumptions: your battery charges 500 kWh from the grid in a year, purely to feed it back later. We ignore losses when charging and discharging. On those 500 kWh you pay 500 × 8.80 cents = €44 energy tax when charging, excluding VAT. You do not get it back when feeding in. The price gap between charging and feeding back must first make up for that, plus the losses. Only then do you earn something.

This is not a forecast of your costs. How much your battery charges from the grid to feed back depends on your steering, your contract and your usage.

How to avoid double tax

Let your battery work mainly for your own use. Grid power that you store and use yourself is taxed once. That is no different from having no battery.
Charge with your own solar power where you can. You pay no energy tax on it, even if you feed it back later. No panels? Then read how it works with a home battery without solar panels.
Look at the trading setting of your EMS (energy management system). Does the steering sell grid power back, for example on the hourly prices of a dynamic energy contract or through imbalance trading? Let that happen only when the price gap is larger than the energy tax and the losses. Ask your provider how the software weighs that.
VAT reclaimed on your battery? Then you trade in power, and you reach this point first. Read VAT refund on a home battery as well.

What is the cabinet doing?

Position: no fix yet. The cabinet is researching and informs the House of Representatives before the end of 2026 about the progress.

2 July 2026: the House of Representatives adopts the Oosterhuis motion. It asks the cabinet to find out how double energy tax on storage can be prevented, and to inform the House before the end of the year.
23 September 2026: the cabinet acknowledges that the double tax can slow demand for home batteries. It is looking into the possibility of preventing double energy tax for home batteries and for bidirectional charging of cars.
8 October 2026: the 500-rules approach says that the ministries of Finance and Economic Affairs are working with the sector on a fix for the period after 2026. They weigh the administrative burden, whether it is workable for suppliers and the Tax Administration, and whether the Tax Administration can check it.
16 October 2026: the cabinet writes that Finance, Infrastructure and Water Management and Economic Affairs are jointly looking into whether the double tax can be removed technically, for example with smarter metering, and whether that is worth the extra complexity.
Before the end of 2026: a progress report to the House. As soon as it is there, we update this page.

Our advice: plan with the rules as they are now, not with a fix that may come.

What does this mean for your situation?

Want to know what a home battery earns you after 2026, with or without trading? Book an advice call. Or first have a look at our home batteries.

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Frequently asked questions

Only from 1 January 2027, and only if your battery charges power from the grid and feeds it back. If you use stored power yourself, or charge from your own solar, you do not pay twice. Up to and including 2026 net metering offsets it.

Yes, for the part your battery charges from the grid and feeds back. Solar power that you store and use yourself or feed back is not taxed twice.

That is not settled. The cabinet is looking into whether it is technically possible and whether it is worth the extra complexity. Before the end of 2026 the House of Representatives hears how that research is going. A fix has not been promised.

Per kWh that you charge from the grid and feed back: 9.161 cents excluding VAT in 2026, and under the proposal 8.80 cents excluding VAT in 2027. What it comes to for you depends on how much grid power your battery feeds back.

If your battery trades: only let it feed back grid power when the price gap is larger than the energy tax and the losses. Ask your provider how the software weighs that.

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