Christophe, a resident of the Visé region, in the province of Liège, has to deal with “a dead loss” of several thousand euros following a deadline exceeded in connection with the sale of its green certificates.
In 2017, he bought a house on which photovoltaic panels had been installed since 2011.
“Because I did not send a sales extension email on the anniversary date of the 10 years of installation, I can no longer sell green certificates whose contract ran until 2026. Nobody warned me, it is aberrant”deplores Christophe in the message he sent to us via the orange Alert us button.
When he buys his house, he also buys back the contract for the sale of green certificates originally planned for 15 years. “It was calculated in the price of the house. I had to recover around 1,500 to 2,000 euros per year”he explains.
Once or twice a year, the 49-year-old looks into selling his green certificates, but this year he had a very bad surprise.
At the beginning of April, he received an email from Lampiris warning him of the takeover of the Liège electricity supplier by TotalEnergies and therefore of the closure of his production site. He connects to the site for the sale of green certificates and then sees a red banner. The latter warns him that he must complete a request for extension of the K factor on the 10-year anniversary date, without which he can no longer sell green certificates.
But what is the K factor?
The right to obtain green certificates (CV) was limited to 15 years for all green energy production units, therefore all photovoltaic installations at the time (which in Wallonia benefited from the granting of CVs, which has not been the case for several years). However, following a 10-year CV granting period, the number of CVs granted for the remaining period was reduced, by applying the “k” factor. The “k” factor indicates the percentage of green certificates to be awarded to production units from the 11th to the 15th year.
To be in order regarding its K factor, “you had to connect to the site before the anniversary date. However, during the last quarter, I did not have any to sell, so I did not connect”explains Christophe who regrets not having received any mail warning him of the need to carry out these steps before the deadline.
“A red banner informing you that your production site was eligible for a ‘k’ factor review request was displayed on the home page of your account on the greencertificates.wallonie.be website and you had to enter it at no later than 07/03/2022”however, replied the public service of Wallonia, which he contacted at that time.
A message on the site 18 months before the deadline
We in turn contacted the public service of Wallonia, which explains to us that the person is warned of the need to submit this request for review 18 months in advance.
“If the alerter had until 07/03/2022 to submit his request for revision of the k factor, the invitation to submit this request was displayed on his account since 07/09/2020. Until the overhaul of the greencertificates.wallonie.be site, the information was in the form of a red banner containing the link to the information on the k factor and the review request form Since November 2021 and the redesign of the site, the information on the k-factor revision looks like this” :
©Wallonia Public Service
The information is therefore displayed each time you connect to the site during the 18 months preceding the deadline for submission of the file. According to the Walloon public service, “the producers therefore have plenty of time to see the information since the site is used to encode the quarterly index statements on the basis of which the green certificates are granted. The producers having expressly expressed their wish not to use the green certificates site .wallonie.be to carry out their index readings and carrying out these readings by mail have received information on the k factor and the revision request form by mail”further informs us the spokesperson for the Walloon public service, Nicolas Yernaux.
In the case of Christophe, therefore, it is out of time. As he did not install these photovoltaic panels himself, he took on the current file when buying the house and managing the resale of these green certificates is not necessarily easy. Many Walloon citizens also found themselves “stuck”, faced with the complexity of the procedure and the jargon surrounding photovoltaic panels and green certificates.
Revision of the k factor possible under two conditions
And even if he had been on time to submit his request for revision of the k factor, Christophe unfortunately did not meet the conditions to benefit from it. To benefit from the application of a k factor specific to his installation, the consumer must meet one of the following conditions, as explained on the site of the Public Service of Wallonia:
- the non-achievement by the photovoltaic installation, following application of the new “k” factor, of the reference profitability prevailing at the time of installation
- a disruptive external effect on current agreements or contracts resulting from the application of the new “k” factor, impacting the producer financially, unfavorably and irrevocably. This effect assumes that it has an unfavorable and irrevocable financial impact for the producer insofar as a retrocession to a third party of green certificates, for a period greater than that of the “k” factor, constituted the mandatory, irrevocable and non-cancellable consideration. services provided by this third party under an agreement (e.g. third-party investment contracts, third-party payment, win-win, etc.)
In Christophe’s case, none of these conditions were met. But faced with the shortfall, the Visétois is disappointed: “I can no longer have green certificates, so I no longer resell energy, I just have the meter running backwards”he explains.
Le fare “prosumer”
This allows him to save money, but to this is added the “prosumer” tariff, often perceived as a tax for users. This is a tariff applied for the use of electricity transmission and distribution networks. With this tariff, prosumers contribute to the costs of the network when they consume electricity at a time different from that when their installation produces it. This should make it possible to reduce the cost per kWh for the majority of consumers.
For Christophe, it costs him 150 euros per year for two years and it will increase to 300 euros next year. “I’m still a bit of a winner on energy bills, but it’s very limited. For me, it’s a dead loss of 2,000 euros per year. There’s nothing to be done, it’s one-sided. In the annual calculation, at the level of purchasing power, is a month without salary”he says.