Energy Contracts

Use energy contracts to define how electricity is priced, taxed, and billed in your simulations.

An energy contract defines how electricity costs and revenues are calculated in a simulation. It determines which prices, taxes, network charges, and supplier surcharges apply to electricity consumption and electricity production.

Energy contracts help you calculate total energy-related costs, compare energy strategies, and evaluate the financial impact of changing usage patterns or using assets such as batteries, solar panels, or flexible loads.

In the simulation environment, an energy contract describes:

These contracts are used as the basis for:

The platform includes two default energy contracts:

Both default contracts:

The Default Dynamic Contract is selected automatically when a new simulation environment is created.

When you add a new energy contract, you can configure consumption and production separately.

This means you can choose a pricing type for:

For both consumption and production, you can choose between:

This gives you more flexibility than using a fully fixed or fully dynamic contract. For example, you can model a contract where consumption is priced dynamically, while feed-in uses a fixed export rate.

Consumption pricing defines how the platform calculates the cost of electricity taken from the grid.

You can configure consumption as either fixed or dynamic.

With fixed consumption pricing, electricity consumption is calculated using predefined stable rates.

You can configure rates such as:

Use fixed consumption pricing when you want to model a long-term fixed-price electricity contract or a scenario where price stability is more important than following market prices.

With dynamic consumption pricing, electricity consumption is calculated using market-based prices, such as EPEX Spot Market prices.

Each kWh of consumption is priced using the market price at the time of consumption.

You can also configure a consumption surcharge. This surcharge is added on top of the dynamic market price and can be used to model supplier margins, administration fees, or other additional costs per kWh.

Use dynamic consumption pricing when you want to simulate:

Production pricing defines how the platform calculates the value or cost of electricity exported to the grid.

You can configure production as either fixed or dynamic.

With fixed production pricing, exported electricity is calculated using a predefined return rate.

You can configure the return rate, for example a fixed feed-in tariff in €/kWh.

Use fixed production pricing when your supplier pays a stable price for exported electricity, regardless of the market price at that moment.

With dynamic production pricing, exported electricity is calculated using market-based prices, such as EPEX Spot Market prices.

Each kWh of exported electricity is priced using the market price at the time of feed-in.

You can also configure a separate feed-in surcharge. This is useful when exporting electricity has an additional cost or deduction.

For example, if feeding electricity back into the grid costs €0.02 per kWh, you can include this as a feed-in surcharge. The simulation can then take this cost into account when deciding whether feed-in is financially worthwhile.

In this example, you may only want to feed electricity into the grid when the market price is high enough to cover the feed-in cost and still generate a positive return. If the feed-in cost is €0.02 per kWh, you may choose to feed in only when the price received is at least €0.03 per kWh.

Use dynamic production pricing when you want to simulate:

Because consumption and production are configured separately, you can create different contract combinations.

Common examples include:

This makes it possible to model more realistic energy contracts where buying and selling electricity do not follow the same pricing structure.

Energy contracts can also include baseline cost components that apply in addition to consumption and production pricing.

Network costs are fees charged by the grid operator. These typically include:

These costs are modeled on a monthly basis in the platform.

Energy taxes are included according to national regulation. In the Dutch default contracts, these are based on the Dutch tax setup.

You can adjust the tax configuration if your local tax structure differs.

Supplier surcharges can be used to model additional costs from your energy supplier, such as:

For dynamic contracts, consumption and production can have separate surcharge settings. This allows you to model different supplier conditions for electricity import and electricity export.

You can edit the default contracts or create a new contract to match your own situation.

Depending on the contract setup, you can adjust:

This allows you to align the contract with:

The simulation currently does not support yearly fixed charges, such as:

Because these charges are typically invoiced once per year, they are not included in the monthly cost breakdown in the platform.

When needed, you can approximate these charges by converting them to a monthly value and adding them as a surcharge or by calculating them separately outside the simulation results.

In the simulation output, energy-related costs are grouped into several categories.

The Expenses category represents:

For fixed pricing, expenses use the configured fixed rates.

For dynamic pricing, expenses use the market price at the time of consumption or production, plus any configured surcharges, taxes, or variable costs.

Some cost items are shown separately in the results:

These values are not included in the Expenses field.

To calculate the total cost of energy for a simulation period:

The combined total gives you the full financial impact of your energy usage under the selected energy contract.