Electricity bill

Belgian EAN code: where to find it, what it's for

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Your electricity EAN code is an 18-digit number that starts with 54. It identifies neither your meter, nor your contract, nor you: it identifies the access point to the grid, the place where electricity enters your home. Since 1 January 2022, a royal decree has required suppliers to print it on their bills, instalment invoices included.

Sooner or later you will be asked for it: to switch supplier, move house, declare solar panels, join an energy community. And that is usually the day it cannot be found.

This article does not repeat what is already on this site. “Read your Belgian electricity bill line by line” shows where the code sits on the bill; “Join an energy community in Wallonia” walks through the joining process; “Energy community: CWaPE documents and deadlines” lists the forms in which the codes are entered; “Which electricity tariff to choose in Belgium?” compares the options before a contract change.

The question here is a practical one: what exactly does this code designate, where can you find it, how many do you have, who asks for it, and who should not get it? The article covers Wallonia and its five distribution system operators (DSOs): ORES, RESA, AIEG, AIESH and REW. Brussels and Flanders are summarised at the end.

What an EAN code designates

“EAN” stands for European Article Numbering. The Walloon technical regulation, in the version adopted by the regulator CWaPE in August 2026, defines it as a “unique numeric field” identifying “either an access point (EAN-GSRN code […]) or one of the market players (EAN-GLN code […])”. The one on your bill is the first kind.

RESA puts it in one sentence: the EAN number “is neither the meter number nor the customer number”. It “stays attached to the connection point, whoever the supplier or the customer”. ORES adds that there is “one EAN code per energy supplied”.

EAN code or meter number?

Three numbers sit side by side on your documents:

  • the EAN code, 18 digits, assigned by the grid operator to the access point;
  • the meter number, written on the device. A replacement meter gets a new number, “while the EAN code remains the same” (Sibelga);
  • the customer number, assigned by your supplier, which changes with it; AIEG points out that it does not know it.

The meter number still matters: together with your address, it is what grid operators ask for to retrieve your EAN code. Take a photo of it once and for all.

Why the code starts with 54

A supply point’s code is a Global Service Relation Number, a GS1 key whose uses explicitly include “the metering points of an electricity company”. Such a code begins with the prefix of the organisation that created it, and prefixes 540 to 549 belong to GS1 Belgium & Luxembourg. What follows varies:

  • in Brussels, every code starts with 5414489 (Brugel);
  • at REW, in Wavre, the code “always starts with 5414557”;
  • at AIEG, with 5414, and “in rare cases” with 541449, in Gesves;
  • the example ORES publishes starts with 541449.

So the start of the code does not reliably tell you who runs your network today. Start from your municipality instead: the “Find your DSO” tool gives it from your postcode, for electricity and for gas.

What changes, what stays

What happens Does the EAN code change? Source
You switch supplier No RESA
The operator replaces your meter No AIEG: “the EAN code will remain identical”
A new occupant moves in No AIEG: the code belongs “to an address and not to a household”
Your municipality changes grid operator Not always Couvin, 2024: new AIESH codes, supply contract kept; Gesves: AIEG runs codes starting with 541449
Your supply point has stayed blocked in the market systems Yes, at ORES New meter, new code; the old one “will be destroyed”

Assumptions: situations documented by Walloon grid operators as of 23 October 2026. We found no published general rule on what happens to codes when a network changes hands. The blocking affects supply points left in error since the Atrias market platform went live in November 2021.

Where to find your EAN code

On your bills, instalment invoices included

The royal decree of 9 December 2021 requires “the switching code or the unique identification code of the final customer for their supply point” on the annual and closing statement (article 3, § 2, 9°), and the same code on the instalment invoice (article 5, 11°). That is the legal place of the EAN code, which the federal regulator CREG defines as “unique to your supply point”. The label varies by supplier; our bill-reading guide shows where it sits.

Beyond the bill

Where What to know
Your supplier’s customer area ORES lists it among the places to find the code
myORES Log in with itsme, eID or MyGov; shows the EAN; a code can only be linked to one account
MyRESA Reserved for residential supply contracts; sign up with the same details as on the contract
Letters from the grid operator Meter-reading letter (ORES, RESA), visit notice, text or e-mail inviting you to submit your readings (RESA), quotation for works (ORES)
Energy takeover form Filled in when moving: one box for the electricity EAN, one for the gas EAN
The meter Sometimes a label: REW sticks one “systematically” on smart meters; but CWaPE writes that the code “is not displayed on the meter”

Assumptions: channels described on the websites of ORES, RESA, AIEG and REW as of 23 October 2026; AIESH describes none. CWaPE’s sentence comes from its 2020 mediation report.

Several EAN codes in one home

What you have How many EAN codes
Electricity and gas Two, one per energy (ORES)
An exclusive night meter, at ORES No extra code: it “is linked to the same EAN as the main meter”
A second electricity meter, for example for a charging point One more: at ORES it “will have its own EAN code”, and can have its own supplier
Solar panels One, sometimes two: the declaration form has an “injection EAN” field for bidirectional meters with two codes
A prepayment meter The same code; to top up, you are asked for its last 13 digits (ORES)

Assumptions: the exclusive night meter rule is ORES’s; we did not find it at the other four Walloon operators. CWaPE’s energy takeover form points the same way: it lists the exclusive night meter under the home’s single electricity EAN.

For solar panels, CWaPE wrote in 2020 that most prosumers had “a bidirectional meter with a single EAN code”. Since 2024, a new installation requires a smart meter, and ORES lets you sign with two suppliers, “one for the energy drawn and the other for the energy sold”. Your bills or your grid operator will tell you whether you have one code or two; declaration and sharing forms ask for both when both exist.

When you are asked for your EAN code

To switch supplier

The new supplier does the work. The law of 29 April 1999 presumes it is “mandated” to end the old contract, with notice of “a maximum of three weeks” and no termination fee (article 18, § 2/3). It needs your code to identify the right supply point. Check that it is correct on the contract confirmation: according to the federal Energy Ombudsman, the cause of an unjustified supplier switch is “generally an error in recording the EAN code(s)”.

To move house

The code belongs to the home; your contract follows you. In Wallonia, supply “continues at the customer’s new address under the same conditions”, with exceptions such as termination or a move to another region (Walloon Government order of 30 March 2006, article 3bis).

The energy takeover form drawn up by CWaPE records the meter readings at the change of occupant: EAN codes, readings for each meter, two copies signed by both parties. It “is not equivalent to a contract”: tell your supplier “as soon as possible”.

In a block of flats, check the code you are given. CWaPE finds that errors are “often” swaps: “a new occupant is given their neighbour’s EAN code, for example by their landlord or a building manager”. The reliable check is the meter number, read by yourself.

If nobody takes over the supply point, the grid operator writes to the new occupant within five working days and, failing a response, visits within fifteen working days with a regularisation form; without a contract, it may suspend supply (ministerial order of 3 March 2008).

Two decisions made on a code stay with the home. Participation in a sharing scheme, as our guide for tenants explains. And giving up compensation, which sharing requires: it is final, and the right “cannot be reactivated for the new producer (new owner or tenant)” either, CWaPE specifies. If you take over a house with solar panels, ask whether the previous occupant gave it up.

To declare an installation

Solar panels, a battery, a plug-and-play kit: the declaration to the grid operator goes through the UP10 form, whose version 2.00 of 14 November 2025 asks for the “offtake EAN” and, if there is one, the “injection EAN”. According to AIEG’s procedure, the applicant is the final customer “attached to the EAN code concerned”, and the form must arrive within 45 calendar days of the electrical safety inspection (RGIE). For a battery, that declaration has a consequence detailed in “Home battery: the price and the alternative”.

To join an energy community

Your EAN code is the identity document of your participation:

  • the community’s manager enters it in Annex 6 of CWaPE’s sharing form, together with your meter number, your grid operator, your address and your status, residential or not. Each production installation appears there by its injection EAN, which the producer must hold;
  • you sign the sworn statement (Annex 8) as “holder of the access point”, meaning the person who signed the contract with the supplier, and you copy your offtake code onto it and, where relevant, your injection code;
  • the grid operator checks, code by code, that the meter’s communication function is active and that compensation has been given up.

One rule follows: “an access point may take part in only one energy-sharing activity” (Walloon electricity decree, article 35quaterdecies, § 1, 4°). So no combining sharing within your building with an energy community: the grid operator checks it.

For a renewable energy community, the perimeter is also checked by code: no public database links EAN codes to transformer stations, but the grid operator can issue a certificate. And participants do not need the same operator: the application is filed with “the grid operator or operators” concerned. In OptimCE, each meter of a community is recorded with its EAN, its number and its operator (Getting started with OptimCE).

Two lesser-known uses

CWaPE’s GreenCheck shows, from your electricity code, “the percentage of green electricity you consume each month”, for Walloon contracts; our analysis of green electricity explains what that figure proves. And the new technical regulation, still to be published in the Belgian Official Gazette, gives you free access to your offtake and injection data “upon communication of [your] EAN code”.

I can’t find my EAN code

The grid operator can retrieve it: it is the one that assigns it. The “Find your DSO” tool tells you which one to contact; for gas, in Wallonia, it will be ORES or RESA, the only two that distribute it.

Have your exact address ready, box number included, and your meter number, read on the device. AIEG and REW only send the code “if there is a good match” between the two. The new technical regulation adopted by CWaPE provides for a reply within ten days at most, based on those two pieces of information.

Operator How to ask How the code arrives
ORES “Connaître mon code EAN” form on demandes.ores.be (also in Dutch and German): address, then the last four digits of the meter number; chat 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays; 078/15.78.01 By text message, to the mobile number ORES or your supplier holds; otherwise an adviser searches: 48 hours by text, or three working days by post
RESA Customer service on 04/220 12 11, Monday to Friday 8 am to 6 pm, contact form or chat; MyRESA No published deadline
AIEG “Demande de code EAN” form (address, meter number, signature) sent back via the website; 085/27.49.00 By e-mail, if address and meter number match
AIESH No published procedure: 060/45.91.60 or clients@aiesh.be Not specified
REW “Demande de code EAN” form on rew.be; 010/22.26.53 By e-mail, if address and meter number match

Assumptions: procedures published by the operators, checked on 23 October 2026. ORES’s form sends every code at the address, electricity and gas, and limits the number of requests.

ORES’s form warns from the outset that any abusive attempt to obtain an EAN code, for instance during door-to-door selling, may lead to legal proceedings. For a simple phone call, on the other hand, the code is not needed.

Should you keep your EAN code to yourself?

Yes, without treating it as a state secret. ORES calls it “confidential data that is only given to the occupant or the owner of the building”, because “an ill-intentioned person could change your energy contract”.

The documented risk is mainly administrative. The federal Energy Ombudsman received 852 reports of unjustified takeovers in 2023, against 1,042 in 2022 and 182 in 2021. Usually, the origin is a supplier linking a new customer’s name to an EAN code tied to someone else’s address. Its 2025 report also counts 359 “mystery switches”, against 386 in 2024; the two series come from different publications and cannot be compared. Fraud happens too: one published case shows a door-to-door seller who had used another customer’s EAN codes.

Three protections work in your favour:

  • since 1 January 2024, a doorstep seller may only leave “a no-obligation offer and not an energy supply contract”, to be confirmed “after a period of at least three days” (royal decree of 12 November 2023);
  • any energy contract can be cancelled free of charge within 14 calendar days, “however you concluded the contract” (FPS Economy);
  • it is up to the supplier that took you over wrongly to cancel the takeover.

One rule has changed to your disadvantage: under the MIG6 market protocol, the supplier whose customer was taken can bill the consumption for that period. The Ombudsman is asking for a return to the old rule, under which neither supplier could.

Give your code to the supplier you chose, to the manager of the community you join, to your installer, to whoever takes over your home. Not to a canvasser while you have decided nothing. The usual sign of a takeover you did not ask for, according to the Ombudsman: a meter-reading card from the grid operator, then a supplier’s letter, with no action on your part. Write to the supplier concerned and keep a copy, then, if that fails, refer the matter to the Energy Ombudsman, which handles contracts and abusive selling; CWaPE’s regional mediation service handles meter readings and meters.

Brussels and Flanders

In Brussels, every code starts with 5414489. Sibelga retrieves it online from the address and meter number, or on 02 549 41 00.

In Flanders, Fluvius says the code “always starts with the digit 54”, is printed on the bill, on a Fluvius quotation or on the meter’s sticker, and answers its request form within five working days; someone else’s code requires a power of attorney. For energy sharing, each participant is registered by their code in Mijn Fluvius, and each access point can join only one energy community.

Key takeaways

  1. The EAN code designates the access point, not the meter, the contract or you: it survives a change of supplier, meter and occupant.
  2. Eighteen digits, always 54 first; the rest is not enough to identify your current operator.
  3. It is on your bills since 2022, instalments included, and in myORES, MyRESA or the meter-reading letter.
  4. One code per energy, sometimes more: a second meter or a separate injection point has its own.
  5. One access point, one sharing activity: your code is what registers you in an energy community.
  6. Lost it? The grid operator retrieves it from your address and meter number.
  7. Keep it for the steps you have chosen: unjustified takeovers mostly stem from code errors.

FAQ

Where can I find my electricity EAN code?

On any recent bill, instalment invoices included: the law has required it since 2022. Otherwise in your supplier’s customer area, myORES or MyRESA, on the meter-reading letter or the takeover form. As a last resort, the grid operator retrieves it from your exact address and meter number.

Does the EAN code change when I move house or get a new meter?

No: it belongs to the home, and a replaced meter keeps the same code. Documented exceptions: AIESH taking over the Couvin network in 2024, and supply points blocked at ORES. In a block of flats, check the code you are given: according to CWaPE, it is often the neighbour’s.

Does gas have a different EAN code from electricity?

Yes, one code per energy, both 18 digits starting with 54. CWaPE warns against mixing them up: check which one you pass on, especially for a step that concerns electricity only.

Why does my EAN code start with 54?

Because it is a GS1 identifier, and prefixes 540 to 549 belong to GS1 Belgium & Luxembourg. The rest depends on the organisation that created the code (5414489 in Brussels, 5414557 at REW, 5414 at AIEG), not necessarily on your current operator.

Can someone switch my supplier with just my EAN code?

The risk exists, according to ORES, but unjustified takeovers mostly stem from code errors: 852 reports in 2023. Since 2024, no contract can be signed on the doorstep, and any contract can be cancelled within 14 days. If an unrequested takeover happens, write to the supplier, then to the Energy Ombudsman.

Do I need my EAN code to join an energy community in Wallonia?

Yes: it identifies you in Annex 6 of the sharing form and in the statement you sign as holder of the access point. The same access point may take part in only one sharing activity.

Sources