Energy Sharing – New Regulations Come into Effect

Joint Use of Electricity from Renewable Energies

In June 2026, new guidelines on the so-called Energy Sharing come into effect. The goal is to facilitate the communal use of locally generated electricity – for example, from photovoltaic or wind energy systems. This allows operators and participants to increase self-consumption and improve the profitability of generation facilities.

Renewable energies are a central component of the energy transition. More and more households, companies, and project communities are generating electricity themselves or participating in local energy projects. Often, however, the generated electricity cannot be fully consumed at its place of origin. Energy Sharing creates a legal framework to facilitate joint use. The regulations are anchored in the Energy Industry Act (EnWG), particularly in § 42c EnWG.

What does Energy Sharing mean?

Energy Sharing refers to the communal use of electricity generated within a group (e.g., neighborhood, district, cooperative, or association of multiple businesses). The electricity is – as far as possible – initially distributed within this community before surpluses are fed into the public grid. If self-generation is insufficient, additional electricity is sourced from the grid.

Practical applications include:

• multiple residential buildings sharing a PV system (district solution),
• energy cooperatives with communal generation and distribution,
• business units using locally generated electricity among themselves,
• communal projects where citizens jointly generate and consume electricity.

New Legal Framework: What’s Changing?

With the explicit legal regulation, more legal certainty is to be provided for communal models. The core idea is that the distribution of electricity within an Energy Sharing community does not automatically mean that the community will be treated like a “classic energy supplier” with extensive obligations.

This is practically significant because being classified as an energy supplier can typically involve extensive requirements (e.g., energy law information obligations, supplier framework contracts, market communication, balance group management, or consumer protection regulations for supplying household customers).

Important: Whether and to what extent obligations from energy industry law, metering operation, renewable energy law, as well as tax and levy law apply, depends on the specific model (e.g., structure of the community, contract design, billing, grid usage, customer group).

Distinction from Tenant Electricity

Energy Sharing is often compared to tenant electricity but differs in scope. In tenant electricity, electricity from a system (usually PV) is delivered to residents within a building. Energy Sharing can also cover cross-building constellations – such as multiple houses in a district or members of a community that are spatially distributed. This makes the model more flexible and usable for additional project forms.

Technical and Organizational Requirements

To implement Energy Sharing in a legally sound and practical manner, the following points are particularly important:

• Measurement and Billing Concept: The consumption of individual participants must be reliably recorded and assigned to their respective shares of the communal electricity generated.
• Suitable Metering Systems: Modern metering systems or intelligent metering systems are often required to account for generation and consumption accurately over time.
• Rules for Distribution: Clear criteria are needed on how electricity quantities are divided within the community (e.g., according to fixed quotas, consumption, priorities).
• Residual Electricity and Surplus Logic: Surpluses are fed in, deficits are sourced from the grid; appropriate contract and market access are necessary for this.
• Contract Structure: It should be clearly regulated who the operator is, who handles billing, who assumes which duties, and how liability issues are distributed.

Important legal points frequently relevant in practice

Depending on the configuration, other legal issues may play a role that should typically be considered in project planning:

• Grid connection and grid usage: Even with local distribution, the grid often remains technically and bilanically involved.
• Regulatory classification: It is crucial whether there is a supply of electricity to third parties and what requirements (e.g., information obligations towards household customers) result from this.
• Taxes and surcharges: Depending on the model, taxes, fees, or surcharges may apply or privileges may take effect. The specific treatment depends on the relevant regulations and implementation.
• Tax law: Income from the supply or sale of electricity can trigger tax implications (e.g., income tax, value-added tax), depending on the operator structure and billing.
• Data protection: Measurement data is personal; a clean data protection concept is needed (roles, order processing, information obligations).

Note: This article does not constitute individual advice and does not replace a case-by-case examination.

Opportunities for consumers, municipalities, and projects

Energy Sharing opens up new possibilities to participate in local generation – even without one’s own roof or own system. Citizen energy projects, cooperatives, and municipal initiatives can generate electricity locally and make it usable within a community. This supports a more decentralized, community-organized energy supply.

How successfully Energy Sharing is established in practice will largely depend on how the guidelines are implemented, which technical standards prevail, and how practical the processing (measurement, billing, role distribution) remains for small and medium-sized projects.

MTR Legal Attorneys advises on energy law.

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