Energy sharing and energy communities

A home, a building, a school or any other property that generates electricity - usually via solar panels - can share its surplus with other participants, at a pre-agreed 'win-win price' and in accordance with arrangements made jointly.

The basic idea is simple: instead of feeding locally generated surplus electricity into the grid at a low price, it is put to better use by people in the neighbourhood who can benefit from it and are willing to adjust their electricity consumption:

• reducing it when there is little energy to share
• or running their appliances precisely when shared, green and affordable electricity is available

For the portion of electricity shared in this way, you are less dependent on a traditional energy supplier. You do, however, remain connected to the grid to draw additional electricity or feed surplus power into it when necessary.

When sharing takes place between two buildings, we refer to 'peer-to-peer energy sharing'. If it occurs between multiple residential units within the same building, this is known as 'energy sharing within the same building'. From 3 participants in different buildings, we refer to an 'energy community'.

The energy community is the model at 'neighbourhood level':

Within energy communities, an autonomous and independent legal entity (association, cooperative,...) must be established to organise energy sharing between multiple buildings in collaboration with its members, and potentially also to offer other energy services (energy storage, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles,...).

Distribution takes place every 15 minutes in several rounds, according to a distribution formula:

1. To begin with, a generation system (usually solar panels) produces electricity during that 15-minute period for one or more members of the sub-project.
2. The electricity is first consumed on-site by each producer, who uses their own generation first.
3. Any surplus in that quarter is then automatically shared with the members via smart meters that record everything on a quarter-hourly basis.
4. Everyone receives their share according to a distribution key that is determined jointly.
5. After this first round of energy sharing based on distribution keys (for example, 10% for everyone), it may happen that a consumer has not used up their entire share. In that case, that electricity is redistributed within the community according to a distribution key, possibly a different one (for example, in proportion to consumption during that quarter).
6. On the consumer side, your energy supplier takes over without interruption if you need additional electricity.

As with other forms of collective self-consumption, a project becomes all the more relevant (and cost-effective!) the better the participants' consumption is aligned with the times when electricity is generated and shared!

There are currently 3 main set-ups in Brussels:

• Peer-to-peer: the simplest option, involving just two neighbours or two buildings in the area.
• Sharing within the same building: relatively straightforward, this allows residents, communal areas and possibly businesses within the same building or co-ownership to benefit together from local energy production. This model is particularly well-suited to co-ownerships.
• The energy community: slightly more technical, this allows sharing between several buildings, at the level of a neighbourhood or a local network of participants, provided they are all located in the Brussels-Capital Region and the conditions of the chosen model are met.

In Brussels, there are also 3 types of energy communities:

• the citizen energy community
• the renewable energy community
• the local energy community

They differ in particular in terms of eligible participants, the arrangements for effective control, ownership of the generation facilities and the origin of the shared electricity. Energy communities already exist. If you are interested in joining one as a producer, consumer or both, please do not hesitate to get in touch with them.

The shared electricity comes from local production by one of the members, nowadays usually via solar panels. The Brussels framework is primarily focused on sharing locally produced electricity, particularly from renewable sources.

Depending on the chosen model, the rules may vary. In energy communities, production from renewable sources is mandatory in some forms, whilst the citizens' energy community, under the terms of the Brussels framework, may also include natural gas-fired combined heat and power.

In addition to simple sharing, energy communities can, depending on their type, also organise storage, flexibility services, electric vehicle charging or other collective energy services.

In the city, many households do not have a suitable roof of their own to generate renewable electricity, for example because they are tenants, live in a co-ownership property, or occupy a building that is not well-suited to the installation of solar panels. In this context, energy sharing schemes and energy communities are a particularly interesting lever for the urban energy transition.

They enable better use of locally generated electricity. This means that a surplus does not have to be fed entirely into the grid without directly benefiting nearby users. At the same time, they broaden access to that electricity for residents, facilities and activities that cannot generate their own power. They also offer the possibility of establishing a clear framework and a stable price for shared electricity among participants, within a more local, affordable and collective framework.

These mechanisms can also stimulate investment in new photovoltaic installations. They create an incentive to generate electricity not only for one's own building, but also for a wider group of users at the scale of a building, a block of flats or a neighbourhood. Furthermore, they strengthen cooperation between neighbours, schools, associations, businesses, co-ownerships and local authorities, and may eventually pave the way for larger-scale projects involving storage, flexibility or local energy cooperation. 

In this sense, energy sharing schemes and energy communities in urban areas are particularly relevant where there is well-located local generation, multiple nearby or coordinated consumers, and a collective desire to organise the distribution of the electricity generated.

All homes, buildings and neighbourhoods can take part in or launch an energy-sharing or community energy project. However, the suitability of a project - particularly in economic and energy terms - depends on:

• whether there is sufficient local energy production
• the number of participants and their consumption patterns (when and how much they consume)
• the ability to adapt consumption patterns and, at least in part, align production and consumption times among members
• local opportunities
• the scope chosen for the project: the network configuration influences distribution costs and the project's economic viability

In Brussels, the framework is already operational:

• a free regional facilitator supports project leaders
• Sibelga provides technical information and activates projects
• and Brugel authorises energy communities and publishes a regional electricity sharing observatory

All the useful links to find out more and develop your project, step by step:

• External siteFacilitator for Energy Sharing and Energy Communities (in French and Dutch)
• External siteSibelga - Energy sharing (in French and Dutch)
• External siteBrugel - Energy communities (in French and Dutch)
• External siteElectricity Sharing Observatory (in French and Dutch)