Dutch large-connection tariffs: kW contract, monthly kWmax and kWh, with a Liander 2026 example

The three parts of the bill

• The supplier's energy price: fixed, variable or dynamic (following the day-ahead market, plus the supplier's markup).
• The regional grid operator's network charges, set under a method regulated by the ACM. This is where the kW charges are.
• Taxes: energy tax (energiebelasting) per kWh and VAT.

Transport charges on Liander's 2026 tariff

All values per month and excluding VAT, from Liander's 2026 large-consumer tariff sheet:

• Fixed transport charge (vastrecht transport), medium voltage above 136 to 2,000 kW: €36.75 per month.
• Contracted capacity (kW contract): €2.29 per kW (medium voltage, above 136 to 2,000 kW), €3.74 (medium/low voltage, above 50 to 136 kW), €3.99 (high/medium voltage, above 2,000 kW).
• kW max per month: €3.57 per kW (medium voltage), €6.24 (high/medium voltage, above 2,000 kW), €5.39 (high voltage).
• kWh: €0.0226 at medium voltage, the same day and night. At low voltage up to 50 kW: €0.0806 high and €0.0430 low, with the high rate on weekdays from 07:00 to 23:00.
• Reactive energy: €0.0000 in every category listed. Feed-in: no transport charge.

How the kWmax is measured

The kWmax is the highest load measured per clock quarter-hour in the month (Stedin regulation 2024). One quarter-hour sets the charge for the whole month, which is why a battery has to catch every peak, not most of them. Customers with at most 600 operating hours a year have a separate sheet with a weekly kWmax (Liander 600-hour sheet).

Stedin and Enexis compared

• Stedin, medium voltage 151–1,500 kW: €36.75 per month fixed, €2.0228 per contracted kW per month, €3.0966 per kW max per month, €0.0198 per kWh (Stedin 2026, table 3). One kW held down and off the contract: (2.0228 + 3.0966) × 12 = €61.43 a year.
• Enexis, medium voltage above 125–1,500 kW: €441.00 a year fixed, €28.91 per contracted kW per year, €3.66 per kW max per month, €0.0247 per kWh (Enexis, 1 Jul 2026). One kW: 28.91 + 3.66 × 12 = €72.83 a year.

The contract works like a ratchet

If the site draws more than its contracted capacity, Liander treats the overrun as a request to raise it. In the medium-voltage and lower categories the new value can apply from the first day of the month of the overrun; at high/medium voltage it applies for the whole calendar year. If a customer lowered the contract and exceeds the lower value within 12 months, the increase is applied retroactively to the date of the reduction (Liander 2026). The same sheet says an increase cannot be granted where the grid lacks capacity.

For a battery this means: lowering the contract only pays if the battery holds the new value in every quarter-hour of the year. One miss can take back a year of savings.

Energy tax in 2026

Energy tax is degressive: the rate per kWh falls as annual consumption rises. Per kWh, excluding VAT (Zorowatt's reading; the page does not say): €0.09161 up to 10,000 kWh, €0.06671 from 10,001 to 50,000, €0.03735 from 50,001 to 10 million, and €0.00310 above 10 million for business use (Belastingdienst).

• A battery changes the annual import only by its losses (and by any solar it shifts), so it rarely moves a site into another bracket.
• Energy charged from the grid pays the tax on the grid kWh, losses included. Energy charged from the site's own solar avoids it.

Worked example — illustrative, not a real customer

A site on Liander's medium-voltage tariff with a monthly peak of 400 kW and a contract of 400 kW (assumptions). A battery holds every month's peak at 340 kW, and the contract is lowered to 340 kW (assumption — in a real study the 15-minute simulation verifies or refutes this).

1. kW max: 60 kW × €3.57 × 12 months = €2,570.40 a year.
2. kW contract: 60 kW × €2.29 × 12 months = €1,648.80 a year.
3. Together: €4,219.20 a year.
4. Losses: the battery discharges 90 kWh on 250 working days (assumption), 22,500 kWh a year. At 90% round trip it charges 22,500 ÷ 0.9 = 25,000 kWh, so 2,500 kWh are lost. Each lost kWh pays the transport kWh rate and the energy tax of the 50,001 kWh to 10 million bracket (assumption): 2,500 × (€0.0226 + €0.03735) = €149.88 a year, plus the supplier's energy price, which depends on the contract.
5. Battery: about 100 kWh usable (90 kWh ÷ 0.95 discharge efficiency ≈ 95 kWh, plus margin), at €450 per kWh installed (an assumption within the 410–450 €/kWh guide values for 100–250 kWh systems on solar.red, October 2026, a vendor source): €45,000. Maintenance at 2% a year (assumption): €900.
6. Net: 4,219.20 − 149.88 − 900 = €3,169.32 a year. Simple payback: 45,000 ÷ 3,169.32 ≈ 14 years, before the energy price of the losses and before any ageing.

The example is why Zorowatt values Dutch batteries on the connection limit first: the same battery that saves about €3,200 a year here may be what lets the site add load at all. See Sizing for a connection limit.

From 2028: the ACM's draft time-weighted kWmax

On 8 October 2026 the ACM published a draft decision. It is a draft: comments are open until 18 November 2026 (ACM), and the text can still change. Its intended start is 1 January 2028 (ACM draft).

• The kWmax becomes kWmax_gewogen: every quarter-hour's kW is multiplied by a weight for its month, hour and type of day, and the highest weighted quarter-hour of the month sets the charge. The weights are 0.10, 0.25, 0.58, 0.82 and 1.00.
• The kWh charge becomes time-dependent in five levels with the same ratios.
• For categories a to d, the transport charge would be split 50% on contracted kW and 50% on kWmax_gewogen.
• The weight 1.00 falls on working days from November to February, in the morning and from late afternoon into the evening; the early afternoon of summer working days and much of summer weekends carry 0.10. (Zorowatt reads the table's first hour column as 00:00–01:00; the draft does not say so explicitly.)
• Small connections would follow from 1 January 2029 under a separate draft (ACM draft, small connections).

Illustrative arithmetic: a site drawing a flat 1,000 kW with a 1,500 kW peak at midday in summer. At night (weight 0.58) the weighted value is 0.58 × 1,000 = 580 kW; the summer midday peak counts 0.10 × 1,500 = 150 kW. The month's charge is set by the 580 kW — so shaving the summer midday peak would earn nothing on the kW charge.

What is not known: the 2028 price per weighted kW. The battery coalition's response to the draft argues it is not clear that the weighted rate will equal today's kWmax rate (zienswijze Batterijcoalitie). Model 2028 as a scenario with an editable rate, never as a fact.

The Workspace carries Liander's 2026 tariff and the ACM 2028 draft as a scenario, and rebuilds the bill month by month against the invoices. For a first number, enter the kW max rate into the free peak-shaving calculator.

Related guides

• Sizing for a connection limit
• German grid charges for RLM customers and the 2,500-hour rule
• How to size a battery for peak shaving

Sources

• Liander, tariffs for connection and transport, large consumers 2026
• Liander, 600-hour tariff sheet 2026
• Stedin, tariffs 2026 large consumers, p.6 table 3 (retrieved 2026-10-30)
• Stedin, Vergoedingsregeling elektriciteit 2024
• Enexis, large-business tariffs from 1 Jul 2026, p.5 (retrieved 2026-10-30)
• Belastingdienst, energiebelasting
• ACM, draft code decision on time-dependent tariffs for large connections, 8 Oct 2026 and the consultation page
• ACM, draft for small connections
• Batterijcoalitie, response to the ACM draft
• solar.red, Batteriespeicher Gewerbe prices, October 2026 (vendor)

Last checked: 2026-10-30. Every figure in this guide comes from the source linked next to it, with the retrieval date Zorowatt's research recorded (28–30 October 2026), or from arithmetic shown step by step. Tariffs change every 1 January; check the current sheet before you use a rate.