A record number of people in our region logged on to the Flemish energy regulator VREG’s webtool to compare the various energy supply contracts that are available and see if they are getting the best deal. VREG’s V-test tool was consulted 2.5 million times in 2022. This is almost twice as many times as during 2021. Despite the big increase in the number of households taking the V-test, the percentage of Flemish households that changed their energy supplier after taking the test was lower in 2022 than was the case in 2021.
Home News
Record number of Flemings used energy supply contract comparison site in 2022
Published:
The V-test is a useful tool to help Flemings verify whether they are getting the best deal with their electricity and gas supply contracts. Each year several hundred thousand households in our region change energy supplier. In addition to the 2.4 million domestic consumers, almost 84,000 small businesses took the V-Test last year, up 36% on 2021. Despite the increase in the number people taking the V-Test, a lower percentage of those that did changed supplier last year.
VREG’s Leen Vandezande told VRT News that "Due to the energy crisis people are more preoccupied with their energy consumption and their energy contract”.
"However, due to the big peak in prices on the energy market, particularly in the early autumn, for most it was more advantageous to stick with the contract they already had”.
"We see that many people take the V-test in the first instance to be able to estimate what the financial impact of the peaks in prices will be on their annual bill. This is particular the case among those with variable price contracts”.
21.5% changed supply in 2022
Last year 21.5% of those that took the V-test changed their electricity supplier (602,459 domestic customers and 164,554 companies). This is down on the 27% of V-Test users that changed suppliers in 2021.
It is the same story with gas. In 2022, 20.97% (483,351 domestic customers 100,759 commercial customers) of those that took the V-test changed their gas supplier. In 2021 this was 30.39%, although of course then fewer people took the test.
VREG is making no predictions for this year. However, it advises Flemings to regularly take the test so that they can track the evolution in energy prices by comparing their existing energy supply contract with what is on offer with other suppliers.