Are you moving to Amsterdam or the Netherlands? You may need to get to grips with how the local utilities and services work – that is electricity, gas, water, refuse collection and telecommunications. In this article we provide an overview on Dutch utility providers from which companies and the estimated monthly or annual costs you will pay…
Energy: Electricity & Gas
The consumer energy sector in the Netherlands is liberalised and you are free to choose one energy company that will supply your dwelling with electricity and gas. Areas without a gas will have a district heating scheme for central heating and hot water – this is generally provided by a single company and paid separately.
In Amsterdam the main energy company is Vatenfall (vatenfall.nl); other energy companies in the Dutch consumer market are Delta (deltaenergie.nl), Eneco (eneco.nl), Energie Direct (energiedirect.nl), Essent (essent.nl), Green Choice (greenchoice.nl), Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij (nle.nl), Oxxio (oxxio.nl) and Vandebron (vandebron.nl).
Most offer a number of fixed and variable tariff options although prices are quite similar across the board. There is also the possibility to purchase energy from renewable sources (groene stroom) such as from wind, biomass or solar. Vandebron sells its energy from independent producers, mainly farmers.
The Netherlands has some of the highest retail electricity prices in the world. There are dual tariffs available with slightly cheaper rates during weekday nights 2300-0700 and at weekends.
The average household in the Netherlands uses around 3,100kwh electricity per year. Depending on your usage, expect a combined monthly bill of around €120 for a standard apartment, and up to €200 for a larger dwelling. Electric meter readings are done monthly for smart meters or on an annual basis for standard meters.
When you first move in the energy company will estimate a monthly payment to take by direct debit – unsurprisingly, this is usually on the high side so it may take 1 year to adjust the payments to fit with your usage pattern.
There are fixed regional distribution companies (netbeheerders) which manage the power grid and metering. Distribution costs (netbeheerkosten) are included in your bill and are €33 per month for electricity and €15-33 per month for gas in 2024. The grid company for Amsterdam and North Holland is Liander.
Adding solar panels to houses in the Netherlands is becoming more popular with a few subsidies available. 10 solar panels producing just over 3,600 kWh per year will cost approximately €5,000-6,500 to install and will save about €1,200 per year. IKEA Netherlands offers 10 solar panels for around €4,200.
Netherlands is on 230V mains voltage with 2 pin plugs. Power cuts are extremely rare.
Water
The quality of the drinking water in the Netherlands is good. Water services in Amsterdam are provided by Waternet (waternet.nl) which handles both supply and sewerage.
There are various components to paying for water which covers direct consumption, sewerage, maintenance of dykes/waterways and some taxes. You will get an annual water consumption bill from Waternet; you will also have to pay separate water authority taxes.
Water consumption charges (2024 rates) depend whether you have a water meter installed or not.
With a water meter you will pay a €108 annual standing charge and roughly €1.13 per m³ of water used – plus a tap water tax (€0.42 per m³) and VAT (9%) on top of the total. A 2 person dwelling consuming an average amount of water (98 m3) will pay around €218 annually.
Without a water meter the bill is calculated on the total number of unit features that a dwelling has. For example, a single unit can be a room over 6m2, a kitchen, a bath, a garden or a garage; a room over 30m2 is 2 units. If your dwelling has a total of 3 units you would pay €182 per year; a dwelling with 5 units would cost you €234 per year. On top of this is the annual standing charge of €103.
Water authority taxes comprise a water system charge (watersysteemheffing), a water treatment charge (zuiveringsheffing) and a pollution charge (verontreinigingsheffing). This varies depending on the number of people in your home and whether you own or rent.
The total charge for a rental dwelling with 1 person or 2+ people will be €262 and €445 per year, respectively. If you own your own home, the taxable value of the property is taken into account. A family of 4 living in a home worth €500,000 will pay about €521 per year.
Rubbish & Recycling
Rubbish collection varies depending on which part of Amsterdam you live in. Often it will be collected (twice) weekly from the street in bags or wheelie bins by the local council. Alternatively you may have to dispose of your rubbish in a street bin (labelled “rest“) with underground storage.
There are also street recycling bins for glass (glas), paper/card (papier), plastic (plastic verpakkingen) and textiles (textiel). Some councils will also collect organic waste matter separately.
Bulkier items such as old furniture, electric items, construction and chemical waste can be taken to one of the 6 Amsterdam waste collection depots (afvalpunten) located around the periphery of the city.
The fee for refuse is included in the annual city council tax bill and varies slightly depending on which area of the Netherlands you live in. The waste collection charge (afvalstoffenheffing) in Amsterdam for 2024 is €352 (single occupancy) or €469 (multiple occupancy).
Communication: Telephone, TV and Internet
The telecom market has been liberalised in the Netherlands and you are free to choose from a number of companies for telecom and media services. Many people now going for “all-in-one” type packages which include internet, TV and perhaps landline telephone. Companies offering this type of deal include KPN (kpn.com), Ziggo (ziggo.nl), Odido (odido.nl) and various mobile telephone providers.
Expect to pay from around €50 per month for such a package (depending on specification) with some companies offering a discounted rate for the first 3 months. The all-in-one price offers a discount to buying each separately.
You should decide whether you want a landline telephone (vast bellen) at home, as some people make do with solely their mobiles. KPN, the former Dutch monopoly telecom provider and other companies do offer landlines as part of a package. There may also be line activation and installation fees on top.
International calls can be expensive from standard landlines/mobiles so most internationals nowadays use free messenger apps such as WhatsApp and Signal.
Stand-alone broadband internet (75MBit/s) via cable or ADSL will cost around €42 per month, though once again, most people have more cost-effective all-in-one packages which includes internet.
Fibre-optic connections (glasvezel) are available in many places in the Netherlands and this offers faster internet connections anything up to 500MBit/s. You can do an postcode check online (at a provider website) to see if your home is connected to the fibre network. Or see: How To Get Broadband Internet in the Netherlands
Cable TV in the Netherlands includes English speaking channels such as BBC1, BBC2, BBC World and CNN. You will also get Dutch national channels NPO 1/2/3; commercial channels RTL 4/5/7/8, SBS6/9, Veronica and Net 5 which show many imported English language shows and films with subtitles; and also Eurosport, Discovery, National Geographic, plus a host of foreign and local channels.
There are various extra subscription options available such as sport channels and on-demand films. Ziggo Sport is a free sports channel available to Ziggo digital subscribers which shows English Premier League football, English League Cup games, Spanish La Liga football, World Cup qualifiers, Formula 1 motor racing and 6 Nations Rugby. See our Netherlands sport calendar
Note to British Expats: Officially there is no access from the Netherlands to UK Internet TV services such as BBC iPlayer and ITV Player. It is possible to get around the restrictions by using UK Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
Netflix (from €7.99 per month) and Amazon Prime (€4.99 per month) is available in the Netherlands.
Most people take out a mobile telephone contract (mobiel abonnementen) with a mobile telecom provider over either 12 or 24 months. This can either be a SIM-only deal or you can lease/purchase a smartphone. For a contract you will need to show ID and have a Dutch bank account.
There are a number of retail mobile providers – such as Ben (ben.nl), Hollands Nieuwe (hollandsnieuwe.nl), KPN (kpn.nl), T-Mobile (t-mobile.nl) and Vodafone (vodafone.nl). Some companies have shops on the high street.
Your monthly rate will depend on calling minutes (belminuten), the number of SMS texts and internet bandwidth usage. A SIM-only deal of around €10 per month (2 year contract) will get you unlimited monthly call mins/SMS and 10GB. Similar contracts which include a leased smartphone range from €25-€45 per month although top-end phones will cost a premium.
Alternatively you could opt for a pre-paid SIM deal – these are offered by the mobile companies and others such as Lebara (lebara.nl) and Albert Heijn (ah.nl). These can be topped up by buying credits at Dutch supermarkets, newsagents etc.
It is possible to purchase these SIMs anonymously (no ID is necessary) but you will pay rates up to €0.23 per minute for calls. However the Dutch government is considering outlawing anonymous pre-paid SIMs.
On street markets there are stall holders who will unlock mobile phones for a nominal fee.
In this article we have provided an overview of essential Dutch utility and services providers (electricity, gas, water, sewerage, rubbish, telephone, internet, TV and mobiles) and given the average monthly or annual costs expected.
Most utility bills in the Netherlands are paid using direct debits, see how to open a Dutch bank account.
This article was originally published in 2010. Last updated 18 March 2024.
