Depending on where you live, energy bills can be more or less substantial. The difference can reach up to 500 euros per year.
The test is quite simple. All you have to do is encode the data on an energy comparator site. For a household of 4 people, the annual bill differs from region to region. In Verviers, the annual bill reaches €5,300, in Namur €5,250 and in Brussels it is €5,150. The difference is more marked with Flanders: €4,900 in Louvain and €4,800 in Antwerp, ie €500 less than in Verviers.
In reality, all Belgians pay roughly the same amount per kilowatt hour. What changes is the cost of distribution. The latter is more than twice as expensive in Verviers as in Antwerp. This difference can be explained in particular by geographical and geological aspects. “It is much easier to put a network in a city or to connect people, so the cost is cheaper. Whereas when you are in a rural area, you have overhead lines which are much more difficult to maintain, the distances are greater”, explains Patrick Reyniers, General Secretary of Synergrid.
2024: towards more uniform costs
This price is set by the distribution network operators. In Belgium, there are 7 (one in Flanders, one in Brussels and 5 in Wallonia). “Alongside the amounts intended for the maintenance and use of the networks as such, the distribution costs also include amounts linked to public service obligations such as lighting or support for disadvantaged consumers”informs Anne-Elisabeth Sprimont, advisor to the Walloon Energy Commission.
By 2024, distribution costs might be more uniform in Wallonia. Ores, which manages 75 percent of the network, should apply the same tariffs in all municipalities. But no changes have yet been announced for the other network operators.
There remains another difference, even if it is less marked. The “Renewable energy” contribution paid for the development of green energies is higher in Wallonia.
