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1. Member States shall ensure that all households, small enterprises and medium-sized enterprises, public bodies and, where a Member State has so decided, other categories of final customer have the right to participate in energy sharing as active customers in a non-discriminatory manner, within the same bidding zone or a more limited geographical area, as determined by that Member State.

2. Member States shall ensure that active customers are entitled to share renewable energy between themselves based on private agreements or through a legal entity. Participation in energy sharing shall not constitute the primary commercial or professional activity of active customers engaged in energy sharing.

3. Active customers may appoint a third party as an energy sharing organiser for the purposes of:

(a) communicating about the energy sharing arrangements with other relevant entities, such as suppliers and network operators, including on aspects related to the applicable tariffs and charges, taxes or levies;.

(b) providing support for managing and balancing behind-the-meter flexible loads, distributed renewable energy generation and storage facilities that are part of the relevant energy sharing arrangement;

(c) contracting and billing active customers that participate in energy sharing;

(d) installation and operation, including metering and maintenance, of the renewable energy generation or storage facility. The energy sharing organiser or another third party may own or manage a storage or renewable energy generation facility of up to 6 MW, without being considered to be an active customer, except where it is one of the active customers participating in the energy sharing project. The energy sharing organiser shall provide non-discriminatory services and transparent prices, tariffs, and terms of services. With regard to the first subparagraph, point (c), of this paragraph, Articles 10, 12 and 18 shall apply. Member States shall lay down the regulatory framework for the application of this paragraph.

4. Member States shall ensure that active customers participating in energy sharing:

(a) are entitled to have the shared electricity injected into the grid deducted from their total metered consumption within a time interval no longer than the imbalance settlement period and without prejudice to applicable non-discriminatory taxes, levies and cost-reflective network charges;

(b) benefit from all consumer rights and obligations as final customers under this Directive;

(c) are not required to comply with supplier obligations, where renewable energy is shared between households with an installed capacity up to 10,8 kW for single households and up to 50 kW for multi-apartment blocks;

(d) have access to voluntary template contracts with fair and transparent terms and conditions for energy sharing agreements;

(e) in the event of a conflict arising from an energy-sharing agreement, have access to out-of-court dispute settlement with other participants in the energy sharing agreement in accordance with Article 26;

(f) are not subject to unfair and discriminatory treatment by market participants or their balance responsible parties;

(g) are informed of the possibility of changes in bidding zones in accordance with Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 and of the fact that the right to share renewable energy is restricted in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article;

(h) notify energy sharing arrangements to the relevant system operators and market participants, including the relevant suppliers either directly or through an energy sharing organiser. Member States may adapt the thresholds referred to in point (c) of the first subparagraph in accordance with the following:

(a) in the case of single households, the threshold may be increased up to 30 kW;

(b) in the case of multi-apartment blocks the threshold may be increased up to 100 kW or, in the case of duly justified specific circumstances due to a reduced average size of multi-apartment blocks, decreased to a minimum of 40 kW.

5. Where other categories of final customer participating in energy sharing schemes are larger than small and medium-sized enterprises, the following additional conditions shall apply:

(a) the size of the installed capacity of the generation facility associated with the energy sharing scheme is to be a maximum of 6 MW;

(b) the energy sharing takes place within a local or limited geographical area, as defined by the Member State concerned.

6. Member States shall ensure that relevant transmission system operators or distribution system operators or other designated bodies:

(a) monitor, collect, validate and communicate metering data related to the shared electricity with relevant final customers and market participants at least every month, and in accordance with Article 23, and for that purpose, put in place the appropriate IT systems;

(b) provide a relevant contact point to:

(i) register energy sharing arrangements;

(ii) make available practical information for energy sharing;

(iii) receive information on relevant metering points, changes in location and participation; and (iv) where applicable, validate calculation methods in a clear, transparent and timely manner.

7. Member States shall take appropriate and non-discriminatory measures to ensure that vulnerable customers and customers affected by energy poverty can access energy sharing schemes. Those measures may include financial support measures or production allocation quota.

8. Member States shall ensure that energy sharing projects owned by public authorities make the shared electricity accessible to vulnerable or energy poor customers or citizens. When doing so, Member States shall do their utmost to promote that the amount of that accessible energy is at least 10 % on average of the energy shared.

9. Member States may promote the introduction of plug-in mini-solar systems of up to 800 W capacity in and on buildings.

10. The Commission shall provide guidance to the Member States without increasing the administrative burden in order to facilitate the establishment of a standardised approach with regard to energy sharing and ensure a level playing field for renewable energy communities and citizen energy communities.

11. This Article shall be without prejudice to the right of customers to choose their supplier in accordance with Article 4 and to applicable national rules on the authorisation of suppliers.