Glossary

Excise duties due on electricity; on shared kWh, they appear on the invoice issued by the sharing representative.

Also known as: excise duty, excise

Non-profit association (Belgian 'ASBL'), a common legal form for shared-energy projects.

Also known as: non-profit association

Consuming your own electricity generation instead of feeding it into the grid. It is the most profitable use of an installation, since a self-consumed kWh avoids buying one at the full retail price.

Also known as: self consumption

Self-consumption carried out by several parties, within one building or a defined perimeter. It falls under a regulatory framework distinct from individual self-consumption and requires an allocation key between participants.

Prior approval from the regulator, required when a community steps outside the standard framework — in particular for an allocation key that does not belong to the families recognised in its region.

Also known as: authorization

The Brussels regulator for the electricity and gas markets. It defines the allocation methods permitted in the Brussels-Capital Region and supervises the energy communities operating there.

Generic abbreviation for energy community, covering the different legal statuses that exist — REC, CEC or LEC, depending on the originating European directive and the Belgian region concerned.

Also known as: energy community

Citizen energy community, as defined by the European internal electricity market directive. Technology-neutral but limited to electricity, it imposes no geographic proximity requirement on its members.

Also known as: citizen energy community

Local energy community, a status specific to the Brussels framework. It allows electricity sharing between participants inside a local perimeter set by regional rules, under BRUGEL's supervision.

Also known as: local energy community

Renewable energy community, as defined by the European RED II directive. It covers renewable energy only, and its members must be located in proximity to the generation assets the community owns.

Also known as: renewable energy community, REC

Support mechanism for renewable electricity; on shared energy, the obligation to surrender quotas (PSO) is passed on to the sharing representative's invoice.

Also known as: green certificates, green-certificate quota

The rule determining how shared energy is split between participants, applied quarter-hour by quarter-hour to actual meter readings. Each Belgian region recognises its own families of standard keys.

Also known as: repartition key, distribution key

An entity that brings members together to produce, consume, store or share energy.

Also known as: energy community

The share of the bill corresponding to the price per kWh set by the supplier, around 40 % of the total; the only competitive component, and the only one energy sharing acts on.

Also known as: pure energy component

A meter able to record and transmit consumption in quarter-hourly steps. It is the technical precondition for energy sharing: without data at that granularity, no allocation key can be applied.

Also known as: communicating meter

Contract between the participants in an energy-sharing scheme setting out their rights and obligations, including the allocation key and the price of the shared electricity.

Also known as: energy sharing agreement

A structure with variable capital and democratic governance, often chosen to host an energy community. The "one person, one vote" principle answers the European requirement of effective control by members.

Also known as: co-op

The Walloon energy regulator. It defines the families of standard allocation keys, receives the notification of energy communities, and authorises non-standard keys.

Also known as: Walloon Energy Commission

Energy produced and consumed within a nearby area, without passing through the transmission grid. Proximity is a legal criterion for renewable energy communities, not merely an intention.

Energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind or hydropower.

Also known as: green energy

The process of calculating and issuing the amounts due for energy and related charges.

Also known as: invoicing

The ability to adjust generation, consumption or storage according to the grid's needs.

The distribution system operator for the whole of Flanders. It supplies the quarter-hourly metering data and applies the allocation keys recognised by the Flemish regulator VREG.

The company that sells energy to the final customer and bills their residual consumption. In an energy-sharing setup, its invoice coexists with the one issued by the sharing representative.

Also known as: energy supplier

How decision-making and the community's internal rules are organised.

Distribution system operator: the company responsible for the low- and medium-voltage grid up to the meter. It collects the quarter-hourly data and applies the allocation key.

Also known as: distribution system operator, DSO

Transmission system operator: the company responsible for the high-voltage grid that carries electricity to the distribution networks. In Belgium this role is held by Elia.

Also known as: transmission system operator, TSO

Energy sent back to the grid when local generation exceeds instantaneous consumption. It is paid at the injection tariff, generally far below the retail price of electricity.

Also known as: grid injection

A cycle of recalculating the allocation or sharing within an algorithm.

A person or entity that joins an energy community and takes part in its governance. The European directives reserve effective control to natural persons, local authorities and small enterprises.

Also known as: participant

Prior declaration filed with the regulator before a sharing operation starts. In Wallonia, CWaPE acknowledges receipt, and that acknowledgement conditions the actual launch of sharing with the grid operator.

Splitting locally generated electricity between the participants of a community or a single building. It is an administrative and tariff operation: the electrons keep flowing across the grid exactly as before.

The operation by which energy is distributed among the participants of a given sharing scheme.

A person or entity whose supply point is included in a sharing operation. Being a participant does not necessarily mean being a member of the legal structure behind the community.

Also known as: member

A constituted legal entity, mandatory to host an energy community: the European directives require it explicitly. In practice, the non-profit association and the cooperative are the commonest forms in Belgium.

Also known as: legal person

The contractual delivery point for energy, identified by a unique EAN code. It is the base unit of a sharing operation: the allocation key applies per supply point, not per person.

Price per kWh at which shared electricity is transferred between members of an energy community; it covers the energy component only, excluding network fees and taxes.

Also known as: internal price, shared energy price

A 15-minute measurement interval used to calculate energy sharing.

Also known as: quarter-hourly, 15-minute interval

Person or entity designated in the agreement to organise the sharing and invoice the shared energy to participants, based on the grid operator's data.

Also known as: energy sharing representative

The electricity and gas distribution operator for the nineteen Brussels municipalities. It reads the meters and applies the allocation methods approved by BRUGEL.

Temporarily holding energy, most often in a battery, to release it later. It raises the self-consumption rate by shifting consumption towards the hours when generation happens.

Also known as: battery

Electricity that is generated but not consumed on site, which can be injected into the grid or sold.

Also known as: production surplus

The portion of surplus generation actually sent to the grid after local consumption and sharing. Reducing it is the direct aim of a good allocation key, since it earns far less than a consumed kWh.

Price per kWh paid by a supplier for electricity injected into the grid; unregulated in Belgium, it acts as the floor for the internal transfer price.

Also known as: buyback tariff, feed-in tariff

The share of the bill covering use of the transmission and distribution grids. These costs remain payable on shared electricity: sharing acts on the energy component, not on the network component.

Also known as: network tariff

A reduced tariff for electricity, gas or heat available to certain eligible households.

A contract whose electricity price follows hourly wholesale market prices: advantageous for anyone who genuinely shifts consumption, riskier otherwise. Requires a smart meter.

Also known as: dynamic tariff, dynamic contract

The Walloon network tariff structure available from 2026, which varies the proportional term across time bands (ECO, MEDIUM, PIC) to discourage consumption peaks. Optional, reversible, restricted to smart meters — marketed by ORES as the Impact tariff.

Also known as: Impact tariff

Share of local generation consumed on site rather than fed into the grid. Expressed as a percentage, it is the indicator that measures the economic performance of an installation or an allocation key.

The share of generated energy actually distributed between participants rather than fed into the grid. Together with the self-consumption rate, it is the indicator used to compare two allocation keys.

Tax levies applied to the energy bill according to the local framework.

Also known as: levies

The part of the network tariff calculated on the power drawn rather than on the kWh consumed. In Flanders it is based on the highest quarter-hour peak of the month, with a 2.5 kW floor; in Brussels it is tied to connection capacity.

Also known as: capacity tariff, power term

Value-added tax: 6% for a residential customer, 21% for a professional customer; due on the shared energy invoiced by the sharing representative.

Also known as: value-added tax, value added tax

Allocated value: the share of generation assigned to a participant, expressed either as an absolute value or as a percentage depending on the allocation key.

Also known as: allocated value

Allocated value as a percentage: the allocated share of generation expressed as a percentage of the allocation key.

Also known as: allocated value percentage

The Flemish energy-market regulator, renamed 'Vlaamse Nutsregulator' on 1 January 2025.

Also known as: Vlaamse Nutsregulator