Is a dynamic energy contract worth it?

A dynamic contract changes price every hour, following the wholesale electricity market. When the market is cheap (often at night, or on sunny and windy days) you pay little; during peak hours the price can spike. There is no fixed monthly amount, so your bill moves with the market and with your own timing. You need a smart meter, because the supplier bills on hourly readings.

The appeal is real: if you can run the dishwasher, charge the car or heat with a heat pump during the cheap hours, you can pay less than on a fixed contract. The catch is that this only works if you actually shift your usage.

The honest picture is that dynamic has not paid off for most households recently. An analysis reported by NL Times in June 2025, drawing on comparison sites such as Keuze.nl and Overstappen.nl, found that over the year to May 2025 four in five households with a dynamic contract paid hundreds of euros more than they would have on the best fixed deals available at the time.

The reason is that most of your bill does not move with the contract type. Energy tax, network costs, the standing charge and a supplier's risk premium are fixed no matter what, so only the part you can shift to cheap hours can save you money. The regulator ACM has also noted that fixed contracts are making a comeback, even as the number of dynamic contracts keeps growing.

Dynamic rewards flexibility. It tends to work for households that charge an electric car overnight, run a heat pump on cheap hours, or pair solar panels with a home battery to store cheap or self-generated power and avoid peak prices. If you are engaged, check prices, and are comfortable with a bill that moves, dynamic can be the cheapest option of all.

It also becomes more interesting after net metering ends on 1 January 2027, when timing your own solar power matters more. See our page on solar panels and the 2027 change.

Be honest about whether you will really shift your usage. If the answer is "probably not", a fixed contract gives certainty and, on recent evidence, often a lower bill; a variable contract sits in between with more flexibility. If you have an EV, a heat pump or solar with a battery and you will actually move usage, dynamic is worth a serious look. Whatever you lean towards, compare real contracts of each type on your own usage, and remember you need a smart meter for dynamic.