ERE certificates for Charge Point Operators: turn every kWh into recurring revenue

At a glance: 

• ERE certificates turn every kWh charged into tradable CO₂ credits with real cash value 

• Home chargers, business locations, and public charge points all qualify 

• Private individuals, fleets, and CPOs can all participate 

• Current market value estimates: ~€0.10–€0.30 per kWh 

• Registration is fully automated: no NEa registration required for end users 

• Last Mile Solutions handles the entire process, integrated into your existing platform 

How much is a kilowatt-hour really worth? More than you think. From 2026, every kWh charged at a qualifying charge point in the Netherlands generates a tradable CO₂ credit – and someone is going to get paid for it. The ERE scheme turns the emissions savings from electric charging into real, recurring revenue. For CPOs, it’s not just a new revenue line, but a service your clients are going to come looking for. 

What are ERE certificates? 

Think of ERE certificates – Emissie Reductie Eenheden, or Emission Reduction Units – as carbon credits for EV charging. Every time someone plugs in and charges, they’re avoiding the emissions that a petrol or diesel equivalent would have produced. The Dutch Emissions Authority (NEa) measures that saving, records it as a tradable ERE certificate, and puts it into a market where fuel suppliers like Shell and BP are legally required to buy them to offset their own emissions. 

The result is structural, government–mandated demand. And whoever owns the charging session data gets paid. 

Who can earn from ERE certificates? 

The short answer: almost anyone with a qualifying charging point.

The scheme is built around three groups. Private individuals and SMEs with a home charger connected to their own energy contract fall into the first category – provided their charger has a MID–certified meter and their connection is under 75,000 kWh per year. Larger offices, depots, and fleet locations sit in the second group, with slightly more involved requirements around renewable energy sourcing. And then there are CPOs and public charging networks, where entire networks qualify, including visitor sessions at client locations.

ERE participation isn’t just a benefit you can unlock for yourself, but a value–added service you can offer to every employer, fleet manager, and facility operator in your network.

What is the price of an ERE certificate? 

Right now, around €0.30 per certificate – which works out to roughly €0.10 per kWh charged. The price moves with the market, shaped mainly by biodiesel prices and how many participants are in the scheme. More households joining could put some downward pressure on the price over time, but the demand side – fuel suppliers with legal obligations to meet – isn’t going anywhere. 

To put it in practical terms: a fleet employer with employees charging at home could be looking at hundreds of euros per employee per year. Multiply that across a CPO network and the numbers start to look very interesting. 

What does this look like in practice? 

Take a CPO network processing around 350,000 kWh per month – roughly 4 million kWh per year. Assuming 20% of those charging points have a MID-certified meter and using the current ERE market range of €0.10–€0.30 per kWh, that translates to €80,000–€240,000 in value created per year.

Of that, a large part flows directly to the charge point owners – the employers, homeowners, and businesses in your network. The remaining sum goes the service chain. For a CPO, that means a new recurring revenue line that runs entirely in the background, without adding operational complexity.

How does ERE registration work? 

The good news is that end users don’t need to deal with the NEa directly. A certified registration service provider – an inboekdienstverlener – handles everything: authorisation, data collection, certificate trading, and payouts. From the end user’s perspective, it’s a short onboarding process: grant permission, share your EAN code as proof of connection ownership, and let your charger do the rest.

For CPOs, the ERE flow integrates into your existing CPMS via API. No custom builds, no manual admin, no friction for your clients.

One important rule to be aware of: under NEa regulations, end users can only be registered with one inboekdienstverlener at a time. If a participant cancels their registration during the year, and an inboekdienstverlener has booked their data to the NEA, they cannot re-register with a different provider until the following year. As the regulation is still in development, this could be further specified or changed.  

Cancellation must be submitted in writing. If a participant moves home and is no longer the owner of the EAN connection, the service can no longer continue at that address,  though it may be possible to restart it at a new address.

What charging points qualify for ERE certificates? 

The non–negotiable is a charger with a built-in MID–certified energy meter. Without one, charging sessions simply can’t be counted. Most chargers on business locations include MID certification as standard – it’s usually listed in the manufacturer’s product documentation. For business locations running older or non–certified infrastructure, it may still be possible to add an MID energy meter behind existing charge points, if your site’s energy requirement surpasses 75,000 kWh. If you’re not sure whether your clients’ locations qualify, it’s worth checking before the scheme fully launches.

What does the ERE scheme mean for employers and fleet managers? 

Employees who charge at home are the legal owners of their home connection – which means they are technically entitled to the ERE revenue it generates, even if the employer is paying for the car and the electricity. Without clear agreements in place, that’s a grey area nobody wants. 

The smart move is to get ahead of it. Employers who document arrangements with employees early, and route ERE payouts through integrated reimbursement processes, end up with a clean, transparent model that works for everyone. It also turns what could be an awkward conversation into a genuine employee benefit. 

A specific situation to be aware of: where an employee drives a lease car, the employer reimburses the home charging costs, and the employee owns the EAN connection, the question of who is entitled to the ERE revenue is still being clarified in the regulation. In some cases, ERE payouts may be treated as additional income for the employee. 

Employers considering offsetting ERE revenue against home charging reimbursements should be aware that the final ERE payout for a given year is only known after the fact, which makes real-time netting complex. The best approach is to establish clear agreements between employer and employee early and seek advice on the specific arrangement that fits your situation. We’re happy to think through this with you. 

For example: as an employer, you can add into your lease/mobility policy that any ERE revenue for lease cars belongs to the employer. We can facilitate paying it out directly to the employer if this is well documented between employee-employer.  

We also facilitate if you want to incentive employees charging as much as possibile at home by sharing the earnings according to a pre-determined split. (please adjust the text to make it better to read but you get the context).  

How does the ERE scheme work for VvEs (homeowners’ associations)? 

In a VvE context, the key question is who owns the EAN connection; in most cases, that is the VvE itself. This means the VvE receives the ERE revenue and is responsible for distributing it among residents. In practice, since the VvE typically charges residents for the electricity they use, it is logical for the ERE proceeds to flow back to the individual residents who generated them. Where multiple charge points are involved, we can provide per-charge-point revenue reporting to support transparent internal distribution. 

What if a location has solar panels or its own battery storage? 

Where a charging location generates its own solar energy or uses battery storage, a different calculation methodology applies. In this case, the kWh-to-ERE conversion is based on the actual share of renewable energy used and the simultaneity of generation and consumption, rather than a straight kWh count. This approach involves additional administrative requirements and is only possible if the location surpasses the 75,000 kWh per year.  If your clients’ locations include solar or battery assets, it’s worth flagging this early so the right methodology can be applied.  

When must ERE certificates be applied for? 

ERE certificates must be applied for by 1 April of the year following the charging activity – so certificates for 2026 must be filed by 1 April 2027. The timing of registration within the year does not affect eligibility: as long as the necessary data is available, certificates can be claimed for the full year regardless of when onboarding took place. 

Are there audit obligations? 

For most participants – including VvEs, homeowners, and standard business locations – no annual audit is required. An audit is only mandatory where annual consumption exceeds 75,000 kWh AND own solar generation is included in the calculation. In that case, technical documentation must be provided to demonstrate that solar energy was directly used for vehicle charging. For smaller users, audit obligations sit with the inboekdienstverlener, not the end user. It means that technically, the inboekdienstverlener can request to provide additional proof points.  

What is the current status of the ERE legislation? 

The legal foundation is in place. The Dutch House of Representatives approved the HBE–to–ERE amendment in October 2025, and the Senate is to review the bill in March 2026. The remaining details – practical rules, technical requirements, and audit obligations – are being finalised in a General Administrative Order (AMvB). Some things are still moving, but the direction is set. The operators who prepare now will have a head start when the full scheme goes live. 

Why handle ERE through your existing charging platform? 

Because the alternative is fragmentation – your clients going elsewhere for a service that should naturally sit within your platform. Standalone ERE providers do exist, but they tend to come with real limitations: no CPMS integration, custom data integration, shaky financial foundations, no experience handling split payments, and commission rates that can reach 30%. These solutions also carry a big financial risk, as getting the data and proof collection wrong means you cannot access EREs.

Last Mile Solutions offers an ERE solution as a fully integrated service – automated onboarding, API–based data exchange, split payment processing, MID evidence storage, audit support, and transparent payouts. Your clients stay in your ecosystem. Their end users get a seamless experience. And every kWh earns what it should. 

Ready to add ERE to your service offering? Let’s talk.