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Solar panels from before 2024: keep compensation and use more of your own power

Walloon solar panels in service before 2024 keep compensation until 31 December 2030 unless you enlarge, share or sell. With a smart meter the prosumer charge follows what you draw from the grid, so using your own power pays.

Wallonia · Subject to change

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Solar & renewablesLevel 1 · HabitCost: FreeA few minutes

If your solar panels in Wallonia were put into service before 1 January 2024, you keep compensation until 31 December 2030, whatever meter you have. Compensation means that over a year the power you send into the grid is deducted from the power you take from it, on the energy part of your bill.

You can lose it before 2030. That happens if you enlarge the installation by more than 1 kWe of net power or take it above 10 kVA in total, if you join an energy-sharing scheme, or if you choose to sell your injected power to a supplier. Joining energy sharing gives up compensation for good, and after losing it your injected power is sold under a supplier contract, which needs a smart meter. ORES advises making changes to the installation, or to your supply contract, in the month your meter is read, so you keep compensation for the full year.

Compensation does not cover grid costs. For those you pay the prosumer tariff. With an old electromechanical meter it is a flat charge based on the power of your installation. With a smart meter (compteur communicant, which you cannot refuse) it follows what you actually draw from the grid, and if that would cost more than the flat charge, the cheaper option is applied automatically. The Walloon refund of the prosumer tariff no longer applies from 2024.

So once you have a smart meter, every kWh you use while the panels are producing is one you don't draw from the grid, and that lowers your grid costs. ORES's page explains the calculation.

Details

ImpactIndirect · This saves no energy by itself: it is a rule, a service, a contract, or a health or safety item. How we rate impact
Estimated savingLower grid costs when you use more of your own solar power; the official pages give no figure. (confidence: low)
Who actsYou (owner)
Needs landlord's agreementNo
TypeRules explained

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Sources

  1. Installation de panneaux photovoltaïques mise en service avant le 1er janvier 2024 (in French) · ORES (official source) · checked on
    Backs: compensation on a yearly basis until 31 December 2030 whatever the meter; lost when net power grows by more than 1 kWe or the total goes over 10 kVA, when joining energy sharing, or when selling injected power; prosumer tariff flat by inverter power with an old meter, proportional to actual withdrawals with a smart meter, the cheaper applied automatically; using your own production lowers grid costs; the regional refund of the prosumer tariff stopped from 2024; energy sharing ends compensation for good, after which injection is sold under a supplier contract with a smart meter; make changes in your meter-reading month
    Where: sections 'Qu'est-ce que la compensation', 'Un tarif prosumer plus juste avec le compteur communicant', 'Comment garder la compensation lors d'une modification d'installation', 'Durée du principe de la compensation' and 'Quel est le moment idéal pour effectuer des démarches auprès du fournisseur d'énergie ?'
  2. Puis-je continuer à bénéficier du principe de compensation avec un compteur communicant ? (in French) · CWaPE (official source) · checked on
    Backs: compensation until 31 December 2030 for installations certified before 1 January 2024, also with a smart meter; grid tariffs on gross withdrawals with a smart meter, capped at the flat prosumer tariff; no one can refuse a smart meter
    Where: answer text (page modified 24 September 2025)

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