If you have refused to install the Linky meter at home, be aware that you must pay additional costs since January 1, 2023 for meter reading. We explain how to be exempted.
The thing was announced by the government in December 2022. From January 1, 2023, the 3.8 million French people who have chosen not to install a Linky meter at their home will have to pay additional costs, inherent in reading the counter. And this, regardless of your energy supplier.
This decision was taken by the Energy Regulation Commission in March 2022. As the authorities point out on the Public Service website, since that date, “households that have refused the installation of the Linky meter, and that have not provided at least one index reading in 2022, will owe compensation to cover this service”.
How not to pay the Linky statement fees
Thus, if you do not have a Linky meter and you have not provided a consumption index to Enedis for a year, you are obliged to finance the meter readings, up to €8.30 every two months (i.e. a total of €49.80 per year).
Nevertheless, and as the Public Service site specifies, it is possible to be exempted from these additional costs on one condition. In effect, it is enough to carry out and communicate at least once a year to Enedis a self-reading of your energy consumption on your old-generation meter. In this precise case, you can continue to benefit from the free service.
Generalized end of free service on January 1, 2025
Be careful though, this method is temporary. On January 1, 2025, you will still have to get rid of the €49.80 per year mentioned above if you still do not have a Linky at home. And this, even if you carry out self-reports. Note, however, that no penalty will apply if installing a Linky meter is impossible at home for technical reasons.
Let us remember in passing that the commissioning of the Linky meter will cost less from August 2023. If for the time being, the installation of the connected meter costs the user €13.94, this sum should drop during the summer. In any case, this was announced by Christophe Gro, director of regulation at Enedis. “Everyone agrees that it must go down. Should it go down a lot or a lot, that’s the question,” he said in March 2023.
