CWaPE comparison tool, CREG Scan, V-test: which to use?

The CWaPE comparison tool is called CompaCWaPE: it is the public tool that ranks the electricity and gas offers available in Wallonia, network charges and VAT included. Brussels has Brusim, Flanders the V-test. The federal CREG Scan plays another role: it judges your current contract.

What is the CWaPE comparison tool?

A free simulator, with no advertising and no commission, run by the CWaPE (Commission wallonne pour l’Énergie, the Walloon energy regulator). You enter your postcode, which identifies your distribution system operator (DSO, or GRD in French), then your annual consumption, or a typical profile if you do not know it. The tool returns the list of offers ranked from cheapest to most expensive.

According to the user guide published by the CWaPE, each line shows the estimated annual price including VAT, the price type, the share of green energy and condition icons. You can pick three offers per energy to see them in detail: annual fixed fee, average unit price, discounts for new customers, estimated monthly instalment. Export to PDF or CSV is built in.

Prices are reloaded every month. Selectra noted on 23 October 2026 that the October tariffs had been loaded on the 6th. An offer launched mid month can therefore be missing for a few weeks, and only suppliers that report their tariffs to the regulator appear in the list.

The tool’s address is compacwape.be. Beware of sites whose name mimics the regulator’s.

Which official comparison tool for your region?

One per region, plus a federal one that does a different job. The table below gathers what I found in the four bodies’ documents, and the “scope of the calculation” row is the one to read first.

Sources: CREG Scan presentation and CompaCWaPE guide circulated by the CWaPE; access protocol for the comparison tool published by Brugel; V-test page on vlaanderen.be; “Choisir un fournisseur d’énergie” page on be.brussels. All consulted on 1 November 2026.

The V-test is the most advanced of the four. It accepts a one off import of your consumption data from the Fluvius portal, or the quarter hourly file from a digital meter if you have more than a year of history, which makes it the only one able to price a dynamic contract seriously. It also compares feed-in contracts for solar panels. Since 1 July 2025, every Flemish bill also carries a contract code, written out and as a QR code, which opens the V-check: a quick verdict, with nothing to type in, on whether your contract is expensive or cheap. A Flemish household that also has to deal with the capacity tariff therefore has the most complete public tool in the country.

In Brussels, Brusim remains simpler but sorts offers into two blocks, fixed and variable, which avoids comparing things that cannot be compared.

Who are the CREG, the CWaPE, the Flemish regulator and Brugel?

Four market watchdogs, each with its own territory and powers. None of them sells energy and none of them bills you for anything.

The split follows a simple logic. The price of energy and high voltage transmission are federal; distribution, grants and household protection are regional. The Flemish regulator has changed its name, but many pages, and many readers, still talk about the VREG.

A dispute with your supplier does not go to these regulators first. The federal Energy Ombudsman (Service de médiation de l’énergie) handles those complaints, while compensation for a power cut is settled at regional level. The regulator sets the rules; it rarely arbitrates an individual case.

One household in two pays for one of the ten dearest contracts

The CREG says it plainly in its study of 12 March 2026 on energy supply in 2025: 51 % of households have an electricity contract among the ten most expensive products, against 9 % among the ten cheapest. The average gain from switching is estimated at about 130 € a year for electricity and exceeds 300 € for customers of the five most expensive products. Adding gas, 700,000 households could save up to 700 € a year.

The same document counts about 3,450 versions of “dormant” contracts, still in force but closed to new customers, for some 300 versions offered each month. The sum is quick: eleven and a half forgotten contracts for every contract you can still sign. None of them appears in any offer comparison tool. Only the CREG Scan, because it asks for the product name and the date of your tariff sheet, can tell you that you hold one.

The market does not have the same depth everywhere. At the end of September 2025, the CREG counted 22 electricity suppliers active with households in Flanders, 12 in Wallonia and 6 in Brussels.

So do not be surprised by a short Brusim list.

How do you compare your contract in five steps?

You will need your latest annual adjustment bill, your tariff sheet if you kept it, and twenty minutes. Cost: 0 €. This is the sequence recommended by the “Osez comparer” (“Dare to compare”) campaign launched on 21 October 2026 by the FPS Economy with the CREG, as detailed by Selectra.

1. Take out the adjustment bill, not an instalment bill. Only that one shows your real consumption over twelve months, day and night split if you have a day and night meter, the exact name of your product and your grid operator. If it gave you a shock, our article on the adjustment bill that is too high helps spot a meter reading error before blaming the price.
2. Run your contract through the CREG Scan. It asks for the supplier, the product name and the month of signature, which matches the date of the tariff sheet. The verdict follows: active or dormant, and where you stand between the average of the cheapest offers and that of the dearest.
3. Open your region’s comparison tool and enter your real consumption rather than a typical profile. For a household heated by electricity or equipped with an electric car, a standard profile distorts the whole ranking.
4. Read the terms of the top three offers. Fixed fee, duration, discount reserved for new customers and valid for one year only, compulsory direct debit, mandatory e-billing: two offers 15 € apart can swap places from the second year. Check the price type too, fixed or variable, with our guide to fixed or variable contracts.
5. Sign with the new supplier, without cancelling anything yourself. It handles the switch. Notice is three weeks at most for electricity and no termination fee is owed by a household, as our article on how to cancel an electricity contract explains. Supply is never interrupted.

One precaution for this month. On 22 October 2026, CompaCWaPE and Brusim warned that their estimates for variable and dynamic contracts did not take account of the recent rise in wholesale prices, according to Selectra’s report. If you are aiming for a variable contract with Engie, Luminus, Mega or Bolt, ask the supplier for the current month’s price before signing, and compare it with the tariff sheet rather than with the annual estimate on screen.

Why don’t the CREG Scan and CompaCWaPE show the same amount?

Because they do not measure the same thing. The CREG Scan only keeps the energy component and the green levy, excluding VAT, the only parts open to competition. CompaCWaPE shows the whole bill, distribution, transmission, taxes and VAT included.

Take two offers 3 c€/kWh apart on the energy price, for a household using 3,500 kWh a year. The CREG Scan will show a 105 € gap excluding VAT. CompaCWaPE will show 111.30 €, 6 % VAT included, because network charges, identical for both offers at the same address, cancel out in the difference. The totals diverge, the gap and the ranking do not.

The size of the compared share is worth knowing. The CREG breakdown reported by CallMePower attributes about 36 % of the electricity bill to energy. Set against the Walloon range of 1,345 to 1,679 € a year for 3,500 kWh recorded by CallMePower in October 2026, the share your choice of supplier affects comes to roughly 480 to 600 € a year by our calculation. The rest does not move, whatever name sits at the top of the bill.

Should you prefer an official tool to a commercial one?

For checking, yes. Public tools earn no commission, and the FPS Economy specifically warns against paid sites that may push a supplier that is not the best one for you. Their blind spots are real, though:

• no customer service rating in CompaCWaPE or Brusim, although that is often where two close offers differ;
• prices frozen for the month, reloaded once a month, so behind when the market moves fast;
• a list limited to suppliers that report their tariffs to the regulator;
• standard profiles in the CREG Scan, ill suited to heavy users;
• no border crossing: each regional tool ignores the other two regions.

Households on the social tariff have nothing to look for there: that tariff is the same everywhere. For everyone else, an official tool provides the list, our ranking of the best electricity suppliers explains the differences in service and green credentials, and the bill simulator prices your profile, region included.