Data exchange for energy sharing

Energy Sharing refers to the coordinated collective use and generation of electricity within a defined geographical context, using the public grid.

Following the amendment of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG), the new Section 42c, “Joint Use of Electrical Energy from Renewable Energy Generation Plants,” entered into force after its approval by the Federal Council (Bundesrat) on 22 December 2025. As a result, distribution system operators will be obligated to enable Energy Sharing within their grid area for eligible participants starting from 1 June 2026.

This gives rise to questions regarding implementation, price design, and potential system impacts. This whitepaper series addresses regulatory foundations, current developments, and implications for the energy system.

Contents of Whitepaper 3

Whitepaper 3 covers all facets of the data and information exchange required for Energy Sharing as planned under the German § 42c EnWG. The exact processes, and the responsibilities of the actors involved in the realization of § 42c EnWG are not prescribed, such that several options are possible and are currently discussed by the German energy sector.

The result of these discussions needs to address two competing goals:

• The EU introduced Energy Sharing as a means for non-professional actors (mainly private households) to participate in the energy system and in particular to take control of their electricity supply. The EU therefore mandates that the participation of private households in energy sharing should be facilitated. The transposition into the German energy system should also follow this goal to reduce barriers for private households to a minimum.
• On the other hand, a concept which simplifies the participation of private households by introducing new responsibilities for professional actors bears the risk of increasing the total system costs. To avoid this, the integration of energy sharing should rely on automated, established processes and minimize the additional costs for professional actors

The paper discusses options for the integration of energy sharing, and their relevance according to these two goals. While the paper itself is heavily centered on the German energy system and its processes, the main questions are, in our opinion, transposable to any other country:

• Is energy sharing considered a supply of electricity, and if so, under which conditions can the public network be used to perform this supply?
• Does the shared electricity need to be balanced (and if so, by whom), or is it considered separately from the regular balancing system?
• How is the metering data of the producer(s) and the consumer(s) combined to determine the relevant quantities that need to be communicated to the involved actors?

Additionally, this whitepaper addresses the relevance of standardized, national platforms, enabling potential energy sharing customers to inform themselves and to register their energy sharing community as simply as possible.

Perspectives

The FfE works with several companies from the German energy sector within the research project SkIES. The objective of the project is to develop and test solutions for the scalable, efficient and interoperable integration of energy sharing within the German energy system. This whitepaper series is one of the outputs of the project. It will serve as a basis for discussions within the German energy sector. We also encourage international actors to reach out and discuss questions and options related to the integration of energy sharing.

Further Information

• Energy Sharing: Use Cases aus dem Projekt SkIES
• Scalable Integration of Energy Sharing