E-credits for businesses: When do they actually pay off?

Your charge points supply electricity to electric cars. Since 2024, that same electricity can also earn you money through a system called e-credits. Sounds good — but it comes with paperwork and a €1,050 annual registration fee. So before you invest any time, the essentials first: what does it actually earn you, and when does that outweigh the costs?

 

In brief

• What is it? For every kWh you supply through a (semi-)public charge point, you receive a small fraction of an “e-credit”. You sell it on to fuel suppliers, who legally need it.
• What does it cost? €1,050 per year in registration fees, plus the time to report your charging volumes correctly.
• What does it earn? At a market price of €8 to €12 per credit, each kWh charged earns roughly 3.6 to 5.4 euro cents.
• When does it pay off? From roughly 20,000 to 30,000 kWh per year, the revenue covers the registration fee. Above that, it is all profit. For comparison: that is roughly what a handful of busy charge points, or one DC fast charger with average occupancy, deliver in a year.
• Who qualifies? Public and semi-public charge points always; private charge points from 50 kW combined power at one address. Home charging at private individuals does not count.

Below, we walk through the numbers step by step, explain where the system comes from, and show how to go about it in practice.

Table of contents

1. When does it pay off? (worked example)
2. Who is this relevant for?
3. What are e-credits, in plain language
4. Who qualifies?
5. What is an e-credit worth today?
6. How does registration work, step by step?
7. For the curious: the calculation formula
8. Belgium versus other countries
9. How Powerland supports you
10. Frequently asked questions

 

1. When does it pay off?

This is the question to answer before you dive into the system. There are two fixed costs: the €1,050 annual registration fee, and the time reporting takes. Against that, you earn a small amount per kWh charged. Once that revenue passes €1,050, you come out ahead.

The rule of thumb: 1 kWh yields roughly 0.0045 e-credit (why? see section 7 below). At a market price of €8 to €12 per credit, that comes to 3.6 to 5.4 euro cents per kWh charged.

Annual volume	Revenue at €8/credit	Revenue at €12/credit	Break-even (€1,050 cost)?
10,000 kWh	≈ €360	≈ €540	Not yet — cost outweighs revenue
25,000 kWh	≈ €900	≈ €1,350	Roughly break-even
100,000 kWh	≈ €3,600	≈ €5,400	Well above cost — clear profit
250,000 kWh	≈ €9,000	≈ €13,500	Strong extra income stream

Conclusion: below 20,000 to 30,000 kWh per year (depending on the market price at the time), registering on your own may not be worth it. Above that volume — which a few busy charge points or a DC fast charger will reach quickly — it becomes a steady, almost cost-free extra income stream, because you are supplying the electricity anyway.

Below that threshold? Then you do not have to register yourself. In practice, smaller operators often report through a party that is already registered in the RET register — for example your CPO (Charge Point Operator) — which includes your volumes in its own reporting and shares the revenue with you under a commercial agreement. That way you do not bear the full annual registration fee of €1,050 yourself. You can read how we handle this in section 9, “How Powerland supports you”.

 

2. Who is this relevant for?

The break-even logic above applies to every sector: the higher and more predictable your charging volume, the sooner you recoup the registration fee. In practice, by type of organisation:

• Charging hub operators and CPOs. The most obvious group: the more charge points and the higher the occupancy, the faster the revenue builds. Often well above the break-even threshold, especially at hubs with several DC fast chargers.
• Hauliers and logistics companies. A company fleet that returns to a fixed base in the evening or overnight produces predictable, often high charging volumes. These companies usually pass the 50 kW threshold easily, and fixed charging windows make reporting simpler too.
• Garages and car dealers (automotive). Often overlooked: charge points for test drives, customer cars and showroom visitors count as semi-public as soon as visitors can use them. The steady flow of customers adds up to more volume than you might expect.
• Public authorities and municipalities. Public charge points on municipal land qualify by definition as public charge points. For municipalities and inter-municipal bodies, this is a way to partly fund the roll-out and running of their own charging network, rather than carrying it entirely as a cost.
• Business parks and real estate at prime (AAA) locations. Office and business parks at a prime location (AAA: high visibility, heavy foot and road traffic) tend to attract more visitors, and so more charging sessions, than a comparable site in a B or C location. For property managers considering a charging hub at such a site, break-even arrives correspondingly sooner. More on our real estate & car parks page.

 

3. What are e-credits, in plain language?

Fuel suppliers (the companies that put petrol and diesel on the market) are legally required to demonstrate a growing share of renewable energy every year. By 2030, that share must be at least 14%. They can do so in two ways:

1. Blend biofuels into their fossil fuels themselves.
2. Buy e-credits from those who already supply renewable energy to road transport — such as you, as a charge point operator.

That is how a market emerges: you already supply green electricity to electric cars, fuel suppliers need proof of renewable energy, and e-credits are the currency between the two. It is not a subsidy, but a tradable certificate with a price that fluctuates with supply and demand — comparable to how CO2 emission allowances work.

Since 1 January 2024, this runs through the Register for Renewable Energy in Transport (RET register), managed by the FPS Economy. It is anchored in the law of 31 July 2023 and the Royal Decree of 14 December 2023, transposing European Directive (EU) 2018/2001 (RED II, since tightened by RED III).

 

4. Who qualifies?

Type of charge point	Condition	Example
Public	Permanently accessible to all EV users, on public or publicly accessible land	Roadside charging hub, shopping centre car park
Semi-public	Accessible to all EV users, also on private land	Company car park where visitors and customers may charge
Private	At least 50 kW combined power at one address, owned or operated by a legal entity	Internal fleet charging, logistics depot

For a private charge point, it is not the number of charge points that counts, but the total power at that address. You can reach fifty kW in several ways: for example with one DC fast charger of 50 kW or more on its own, with two charge points of 25 kW or more each, or with three charge points of roughly 17 kW or more each (such as three times 22 kW). As long as the sum at one address reaches 50 kW, it counts — regardless of the exact distribution.

Note what does not count: a charge point at a private individual’s home, not even when it came about through the employer (for example a home charge point for a company car, paid for or supplied by the company). According to the FPS Economy, this remains excluded even if the charge point is also owned by a legal entity or a citizen — ownership therefore does not change the exclusion.

Not sure whether a charge point in your situation qualifies (for example, where an address has mixed use)? Get confirmation in advance from the Directorate-General for Energy of the FPS Economy (oil-biofuels@economie.fgov.be), before you start a registration file.

A certified meter per charge point (EMI3 or MID) gives the most accurate reporting. Without a separate meter, you report per charging station or charging pool via the EAN number — also possible, but slightly less precise.

 

5. What is an e-credit worth today?

The price is set on the free market, not by the government. That makes it volatile. As a rough guide, based on public market reports from the past two years:

Period	Indicative price per credit
Mid-2025	≈ €13 to €15
Late 2025	≈ €17 to €18 (peak)
Spring 2026	≈ €10 to €12
Summer 2026	≈ €8 to €12

The price has fallen in recent months, mainly because supply has grown (including from rail transport). These figures are market observations, not official tariffs — always ask for a current price just before selling.

 

6. How does registration work, step by step?

1. Check your eligibility — public, semi-public, or private from 50 kW at one address.
2. Make sure you have reliable measurement data — per charge point (EMI3/MID) or per charging station/pool (EAN).
3. Create a main account in the RET register and pay the annual contribution (€1,050, excl. VAT).
4. Log your charged volumes weekly and submit them quarterly, no later than two weeks after the quarter ends.
5. Validation by the FPS Economy — the e-credits are granted roughly two months later.
6. Sell on the free market — directly to a fuel supplier, or via a broker.
7. Register the transfer in the register, with a reference to a contract or invoice. The buyer has 5 days to accept.
8. Receive payment. Note: granted e-credits remain valid until 30 April of the following year — sell in time.

 

7. For the curious: the calculation formula

Want to calculate it yourself instead of using the rule of thumb? Here is the official conversion from kWh to e-credits, in three steps:

1. Conversion to energy: 1 kWh = 0.0036 gigajoule (GJ). One e-credit equals 1 GJ of renewable energy.
2. Statutory multiplier: for electricity in road transport, a multiplier of 4 applies, which accounts for the higher energy efficiency of an electric motor compared with a combustion engine.
3. Share of renewable energy in the Belgian electricity mix, measured two years earlier (for reporting year 2026, that is the 2024 mix, at the time roughly 31% renewable).

Put together, that gives roughly 0.0045 e-credit per kWh. That figure shifts slightly each year with the Belgian energy mix.

Why does “grey” electricity also count as renewable?

A fair question: not every kWh from your charge point comes from solar panels or other renewable sources. True — and yet every kWh charged counts. That is not a flaw in the system but a deliberate design choice:

• It is a statistical allocation, not traceable electricity. Just as with “100% green electricity” contracts from energy suppliers, you physically receive the same electrons as everyone else on the grid. The “green” share is not measured per socket, but derived from the average Belgian electricity mix (around 31% renewable in 2024) — that is step 3 in the formula above.
• The multiplier 4 is not a “bonus for green electricity”. It compensates for the fact that an electric motor is much more efficient than a combustion engine, and is therefore a policy choice to encourage electric driving — regardless of exactly how green the grid is at that moment.
• In short: e-credits do not prove that “this specific electricity came from a solar panel”. They pass the renewable share of the national grid on to the transport sector, and give electrification extra credit because of its efficiency. Some observers rightly point out that the system thus measures “green on paper”, not “green at the plug” — a deliberate simplification written into the legislation, not a hidden catch.

 

8. Belgium versus other countries

The Netherlands, France and Germany have comparable systems under RED II/III, with indicative prices generally between 2 and 8 euro cents per kWh. As more neighbouring countries move to the stricter RED III standards, demand for credits — and therefore the price — may evolve further.

 

9. How Powerland supports you

With many providers, e-credit support is a separate service: a broker who expects you to supply the exports from your charging system yourself. At Powerland, that step is already included. As designer, installer and operator of your charging infrastructure, we already collect the measurement data the RET register requires, via our own CPO platform:

• Backend management & dashboards — consumption history per charge point, per user and per charge card, directly usable for your quarterly reporting.
• Certified metering (EMI3/MID), built into our charging infrastructure — from AC wallboxes to DC fast chargers up to 1000 kW.
• Energy management (EMS) and load balancing via our energy management solutions, so that your charging behaviour stays predictable and measurable.
• Charge cards and access management via our charge card service, so that every reported volume is traceable to a specific charge point.
• Tailored advice: we work out with you whether your charging volume lies above or below the break-even threshold — including for sector-specific situations such as real estate and car parks, transport & logistics, automotive or government & education.

Because we install and manage the physical charging infrastructure ourselves, you do not need to involve a separate party for the underlying data. That removes a link from the chain — and with it time and room for error.

Below the break-even threshold? Then we will look together at how to still get your volumes counted, for example by reporting through an already registered party in return for an agreed share of the revenue — so you do not have to carry the full €1,050 annual registration fee yourself. We assess what is feasible and most advantageous case by case.

Curious whether your charging infrastructure is above the break-even threshold? Request a free charging scan or get in touch at +32 57 69 01 05 or info@powerland.be.

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Sources: FPS Economy, Directorate-General for Energy — “Register for renewable energy in transport, FAQ” (economie.fgov.be); RET register (ret-register.be); law of 31 July 2023 on product standards for integrating energy from renewable sources into fossil motor fuels; Royal Decree of 14 December 2023 on the modalities of the register; Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (RED II). Market price indications are observations from publicly available sector reports, do not originate from the FPS Economy itself, and are for indication only. English renderings of the Belgian legal texts are our own free translations; the official texts are in Dutch and French.

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