Recent energy crises have reminded companies just how much their electricity bills can depend on factors beyond their control. In the current context of energy transition, efficiency remains an essential lever for controlling costs, but another question now arises: how can businesses reduce their exposure to market price volatility?
Energy sharing provides a new answer to this challenge, made possible by the deployment of digital meters within a European legal framework transposed across all three Belgian regions.
"Better valorizing locally produced energy and taking back control of part of your bill: that is what energy sharing is all about."
How does energy sharing work?
Until now, a company without its own energy production had to source all its energy from a single supplier; conversely, a company producing its own electricity could only self-consume it and see its surplus fed back into the grid at a low price. Energy sharing creates a bridge between the two: a new option that allows the former to access energy produced directly by the latter.
Joining this scheme involves no substantial changes for participants: the consuming business simply sources part of its electricity from local producers without parting ways with its supplier, which continues to cover the remainder of its needs. The producer, on the other hand, gets more value out of its solar surplus by selling it directly to consumers. The shared energy is traded at a rate that is structurally advantageous for both parties: higher than the standard feed-in tariff for the producer, lower than the supplier rate for the consumer, and above all, insulated from market volatility since it is agreed upon directly between the participants.
Can all companies benefit?
With very few exceptions, all companies can participate in energy sharing. Owning photovoltaic panels is not a prerequisite: a company can be a producer, a consumer, or both. However, the consumption profile plays a key role: businesses operating primarily during the day benefit the most, as their consumption coincides with peak solar generation hours. Energy sharing thus carries an educational benefit: it encourages companies to evaluate their consumption patterns and explore shifting certain operations to hours when renewable energy is abundant and cheap.
Implementation remains complex
While simple in theory, implementation is less straightforward. Identifying compatible producers and consumers, drafting sharing agreements, navigating regulator approval procedures, and processing raw meter data require technical and administrative expertise that few companies possess in-house. This explains the rise of specialized actors whose role is precisely to facilitate these connections and manage the system over time, a burden the participants themselves never have to bear.
A momentum structuring itself in Brussels
In Brussels, energy sharing benefits from a particularly favorable regulatory and operational framework, notably thanks to the work of BRUGEL and Sibelga. It is in this environment that Sun Is Up emerged, an energy community active across the Brussels region that currently brings together around fifty private companies and two public organizations, targeting 5 GWh of shared energy by the end of 2027. Its management framework now relies on a commercial partnership with Alteo Group, a Belgian player in building energy transition, providing Sun Is Up with the backing of an established entity while allowing Alteo Group to integrate energy sharing into its service portfolio.
From energy crisis to a new model of consumption
The energy crisis highlighted the limits of relying entirely on energy market fluctuations. Energy sharing does not eliminate these fluctuations, nor does it replace traditional energy supply. However, it empowers businesses to regain control over a portion of their supply while extracting greater value from locally generated renewable electricity. Furthermore, its potential remains far from fully tapped on a European scale, as confirmed by a recent European Court of Auditors report.
As digital meters become widespread and energy communities expand, energy sharing could well become a key component of corporate energy strategy for Brussels businesses and a fully fledged player in the energy market.
By Thomas Josse and Simon Laffut, co-founders of Sun Is Up.