Het sluipverbruik beïnvloedt het energieverbruik.

Here het is the definite article, meaning the, not the pronoun it.

So the sentence is structured as:

• Het sluipverbruik = the standby consumption / phantom power use
• beïnvloedt = affects
• het energieverbruik = the energy consumption

Both nouns happen to take het, so you see het twice.

Because both are compound nouns ending in verbruik.

In Dutch compounds, the last part usually determines the grammatical gender and therefore the article. Since verbruik is a het-word, these compounds are also het-words:

• het verbruik
• het sluipverbruik
• het energieverbruik

This is a very useful rule for Dutch compound nouns.

Yes. Dutch normally writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• sluip + verbruik → sluipverbruik
• energie + verbruik → energieverbruik

This is one of the big differences from English, which often prefers separate words, like energy consumption.

Dutch often uses the definite article with general concepts more readily than English does.

So Het sluipverbruik beïnvloedt het energieverbruik can describe the concepts in a general sense, not only one very specific instance.

A more article-less version such as Sluipverbruik beïnvloedt energieverbruik is possible in very technical, headline-like, or note-like language, but the version with het sounds more like a normal full sentence.

No, this is the basic Dutch main-clause word order:

• Subject: Het sluipverbruik
• Verb: beïnvloedt
• Object: het energieverbruik

So it follows the normal subject–verb–object pattern, much like English.

The dictionary form is beïnvloeden, which means to affect / to influence.

In this sentence, beïnvloedt is the third-person singular present tense form, used with the singular subject het sluipverbruik.

Compare:

• ik beïnvloed = I affect
• jij beïnvloedt = you affect
• het sluipverbruik beïnvloedt = the standby consumption affects

The ï is a diaeresis. It shows that the vowels are pronounced in separate syllables.

So beïnvloedt is pronounced more like:

• be-in-vloedt

and not as if the beginning were one vowel combination like ei.

Without the dots, a reader might group the vowels incorrectly. In standard Dutch spelling, the diaeresis is required here.

Because the verb stem is beïnvloed, and for the third-person singular in the present tense Dutch adds -t.

So:

• infinitive: beïnvloeden
• stem: beïnvloed
• 3rd person singular: beïnvloed + t → beïnvloedt

This kind of spelling is very common in Dutch. Even though it is written -dt, the final sound is just t in normal pronunciation.

Yes, a few parts often are:

• beïnvloedt: the ï forces a break: be-in-vloedt
• sluipverbruik and verbruik: the Dutch ui sound has no exact English equivalent
• final -dt in beïnvloedt is spelled fully, but pronounced simply as t

A useful learner strategy is to break the sentence into chunks:

• Het sluipverbruik
• beïnvloedt
• het energieverbruik

Then practice each chunk separately.

Because Dutch does not capitalize common nouns the way German does.

So:

• het sluipverbruik
• het energieverbruik

stay lowercase unless they begin the sentence. The first word Het is capitalized only because it starts the sentence.

No. beïnvloeden is not separable.

That matters because many Dutch verbs with prefixes do separate, but be- verbs normally do not.

So you get forms like:

• Het sluipverbruik beïnvloedt het energieverbruik.
• Het sluipverbruik heeft het energieverbruik beïnvloed.

Notice also that the past participle is beïnvloed, not geïnvloed. The prefix be- normally blocks an extra ge-.