How does energy sharing between businesses work?

Energy sharing between businesses is allowed in all three Belgian regions, only through the public grid and per quarter-hour. Flanders runs it through Fluvius, Wallonia through energy communities authorised by CWaPE, Brussels under Brugel rules. A battery can only be shared when an energy community owns it, and a business battery behind your own meter usually saves more per kWh.

Your roof produces far more than you use at noon. The cold store next door pays the full price, several times your injection fee. Shared power still travels over the grid, so network costs and levies stay.

A farm in Tielt kept its solar power on site and expects to take only about 5% of its yearly use from the grid.

What is energy sharing between businesses in Belgium?

Energy sharing between businesses means that one company gives or sells its solar or wind surplus to another company, through the public grid. There is no cable between the sites. The grid operator reads both meters per quarter-hour and assigns your injected power to your partner, up to what they used.

Three things are the same everywhere in Belgium:

• Every participant needs a meter that measures per quarter-hour: a digital meter or an AMR meter for larger users. In Flanders your supplier must also be allowed to share your quarter-hour data (measuring regime 3).
• Every participant keeps its own connection and its own supply contract. Sharing comes on top, it does not replace your supplier.
• Sharing may not be your main commercial activity. It is meant for your surplus, not for a new business as an energy supplier.

Can you run a cable to share solar power with the company next door?

In most cases, no. A private cable that brings power from your site to another company is a private network. In Flanders the Vlaamse Nutsregulator (VNR) does not allow private distribution networks, apart from narrow exceptions.

A direct line is a separate case: a cable that connects a production installation, such as solar panels or a wind turbine, to one user. If that direct line leaves your own site, you need approval from the VNR before you build it. On some industrial sites a closed distribution network exists, with its own rules and its own manager.

How does energy sharing work for companies in Flanders?

In Flanders a company can share energy in several ways, all through Fluvius and all within the Flemish Region. You may take part in only one form at the same time.

Sources for this table: Fluvius, sharing with a person or organisation, Fluvius, sharing with yourself, Vlaamse Nutsregulator, energy sharing and selling.

For companies on a business park, the energy community is the form that can hold a shared battery. The VNR lists storage among the activities of both types of community. In a renewable energy community (HEG), SMEs can take part and hold control if it is not their main business.

The HEG must own its installations itself. In a citizen energy community (BEG), large companies may take part but may not have decisive influence.

How does energy sharing work for companies in Wallonia and Brussels?

In Wallonia a company can share energy within the same building or in an energy community. Peer-to-peer sharing between two separate parties outside a community is not yet possible: CWaPE states that a decree of the Walloon Government is still needed.

• Renewable energy community (CER): only individuals, local authorities and SMEs can be members. Participants must be in the same municipality or behind the same Elia high-voltage substation. Only renewable power may be shared.
• Citizen energy community (CEC): no geographic limit on sharing, and fossil power is allowed too. Medium and large companies can be members, but cannot take part in the effective control.
• Same building: since 2025 the proportional terms of the network tariff are reduced by 80% for power shared within the same building.
• No tariff reduction in a community: for sharing in a CER or CEC, all network costs, taxes and surcharges remain due.

Every participant needs a communicating meter, and the sharing starts only after CWaPE has authorised it. ORES and RESA handle the practical side on their networks. Walloon energy communities may also store energy.

In Brussels companies can share within a building, in an energy community, or peer-to-peer with one other active customer. An energy community needs an authorisation from Brugel; a one-to-one exchange is declared to Sibelga.

Brussels is the only region with a clear network discount by distance. For 2025 to 2029, shared power gets a reduced network tariff in the same building or behind the same low-voltage cabin. The further apart they are, the smaller the discount, up to none; participants get a smart meter for free.

What does energy sharing save your business, and what does it not?

Energy sharing lowers the energy part of your partner's bill and raises the value of your surplus. It does not remove network costs and levies, except for the building and nearby-cabin discounts in Wallonia and Brussels.

• The gain is the gap between your injection fee and your partner's energy price, shared as you agree. On a small surplus, a supplier fee can take most of it.
• Only simultaneous use counts. A neighbour who is closed at the weekend receives nothing from your Saturday sun.
• Your capacity tariff does not change. Fluvius states that energy sharing does not change how your capacity tariff is calculated. Read how to read and lower your business peak demand if that part of your bill hurts. Only a lower peak lowers it, for example with load control or a battery.
• Consuming your own power is still the best deal. The VNR writes it plainly: it remains most advantageous to use as much of your own production as possible yourself.

Want to know which parts of your bill sharing touches? Our article on what is on a business electricity bill takes it line by line.

Can you share a battery with a neighbouring business?

You can share a battery with other companies only through an energy community that owns it. One battery between two connections would link installations behind different connection points, which the rules forbid. Two connections on your own site are a different case: read whether one battery can combine two grid connections.

The order matters: a battery filled first with your noon surplus leaves less to share, and that is usually right. The stored kWh avoids network costs and levies; the shared kWh still pays them. Sharing takes what the battery can no longer hold, on long summer days or when you are closed.

The Tielt farm shows the own-battery route: its battery system of 123.2 kWh gives it more power, so it did not need a heavier connection. A smart control sends excess energy to the boilers.

Is your injection already limited, or does the grid cut off your inverter at noon? Then read what injection limits mean for a business with solar panels: a battery then does more than sharing ever can.

Energy sharing, a battery or both: what fits your company?

Choose by what your surplus looks like and what your partner does at the same time.

A battery can also charge cheaply with a dynamic energy contract. For larger sites, see our overview of battery storage (BESS) for businesses.