eIDAS 2 for Energy & Utilities

eIDAS 2 names both energy and drinking water as sectors that must accept the EUDI Wallet. Municipal and publicly owned utilities, which are public-sector bodies, have to be ready by the end of 2026; commercial suppliers by the end of 2027. This guide covers the deadlines, what accepting the wallet involves, and how the utility bill could become as proof of address credential.

What changes for energy and utilities under eIDAS 2

1. Wallet acceptance becomes mandatory. For both energy and drinking water suppliers. The deadline depends on if the supplier is a public sector body or not: end of 2026 for public utilities, end of 2027 for private ones.
2. Onboarding stops needing document checks. A customer proves who they are in seconds, with the same process for a customer from any Member State.
3. Eligibility for support can be more easily checked and verified. Where an authority decides a household qualifies for help, it can issue that decision as a credential the household presents.
4. Proof of supply becomes issuable. The utility bill that half of Europe uses as proof of address can become a credential that is cryptographically verifiable.

Micro and small enterprises are exempt from the acceptance obligation.

The roles utilities play under eIDAS 2

Verifier: the role with the deadline

As a verifier, a utility requests and checks credentials from customer wallets. If a service already asks people to identify themselves electronically, it has to offer the wallet as an option too.

This means registering as a relying party with the national registrar, declaring which data each process will request, and being able to check that credentials received are genuine, still valid, and belong to the person presenting them.

Issuer: optional

As an issuer, a utility places its own credentials into customer wallets.

The obvious candidate is proof of supply at an address, covered further down. Connection confirmations and energy community membership work the same way.

Wallet provider: optional

As a wallet provider, a utility would offer the wallet itself. This means meeting the EU's highest security requirements and passing a formal conformity assessment.

Every Member State must provide at least one certified wallet, so customers will already have one available to them. Still, the option is open to any organisation.

Core use cases at a glance

Onboarding and account access

This is the obligation, and it applies wherever a utility already asks people to identify themselves electronically — sign-up, the customer portal, the app.

Four things are involved:

• Register as a relying party with the national registrar, and declare which data each process will request. Wallets check requests against this registration.
• Support the standard protocols and formats. Credentials are presented over OID4VP, in the mandated formats, often SD-JWT VC and ISO/IEC 18013-5.
• Validate what comes back. Check the signature, check the credential is still valid, and check it belongs to the person presenting it.
• Keep the alternatives. Customers who do not use a wallet must still be able to sign up and manage their account.

Two additional benefits.

It works the same across borders. A customer who has moved from another Member State presents the same credential as a domestic one, verified the same way. No separate process, no manual exception.

It collects less data via selective disclosure. Most utility processes don't need all the attributes in an ID. With the wallet, utilities can only request the data points they need.

Proving eligibility for support

Energy support schemes — social tariffs, disconnection protections, energy vouchers — are decided by a public authority, not by the supplier. The household then has to prove that decision to the supplier, which today means paperwork, repeated per scheme and per year.

Issued as a credential the household presents it once, it is verified instantly, and the supplier applies the tariff or the protection.

The utility bill problem

Utilities are Europe's de facto address verification service.

When a bank opens an account, a landlord checks a tenant, or a public body registers a resident, the document they ask for is a utility bill. It is the closest thing Europe has to a universal proof of address — and it is a PDF. Anyone can edit it, and the institution accepting it has no way to check it against the utility that supposedly issued it.

A utility can issue a credential confirming that a named person is supplied at a named address. It is verifiable instantly, it cannot be edited, and it can be revoked when the supply ends.

Build vs buy: how to build a compliant solution

Whether acting as verifier, issuer, or both, a utility faces the same decision as every other organisation in the ecosystem: how much of the solution to build, and how much to buy. The customer-facing applications — the portal, the app, the sign-up journey — are where a utility differentiates and will always be built in-house or with existing partners. The identity layer underneath — credential formats, exchange protocols, trust checks, key management, revocation — is standardised by definition and changes every time the EU specifications evolve. For that layer, there are three possible implementation paths:

• Build apps, buy infrastructure (recommended) — build only the customer-facing applications and use a proven, standards-compliant provider for the identity layer. Fastest time to market, lowest regulatory and technical risk.
• Build apps, own infrastructure — use open-source identity infrastructure to retain full control of the stack, while still avoiding implementing the credential formats, protocols, and trust validation from scratch.
• Build everything in-house — implement and maintain the full stack internally, and keep it current as the specifications evolve. Viable only for organisations with a dedicated identity engineering team.

The walt.id solution

walt.id covers both of the first two paths. The walt.id Community Stack provides open-source issuer, verifier, and wallet infrastructure for organisations that want to own their stack; the walt.id Enterprise Stack is the managed offering on top of it — built on open-source technology used by more than +55.000 developers, governments, and businesses. For energy and utilities specifically:

• Verifier — accept the EUDI Wallet for sign-up, portal login and eligibility checks, with trust, revocation and wallet-authenticity checks handled automatically and results passed to existing CRM and billing systems.
• Issuer — issue proof of supply in all mandated formats (SD-JWT VC, ISO/IEC 18013-5, W3C VC), with revocation built into the issuance workflow so a credential stops being valid when supply ends.
• Cross-border by default — the same verification works for customers from every Member State, without country-by-country integration.

A role-by-role compliance breakdown is available in the eIDAS 2 Implementers Guide or reach out to our team to learn more.

Frequently asked questions

When do energy and water companies have to accept the EUDI Wallet?

Under eIDAS 2 (Regulation EU 2024/1183), public energy and water utilities must accept the EU Digital Identity Wallet as soon as it launches in late 2026, while private suppliers get an extra year and must accept it by late 2027.

What does accepting the wallet actually involve?

Registering as a relying party with the national registrar and declaring which data each process will request; supporting the standard presentation protocol and mandated credential formats; validating that credentials received are genuine, valid and belong to the person presenting them; and keeping existing routes available for customers who do not use a wallet.

Can customers prove eligibility for social tariffs this way?

Yes, where the public authority responsible for the decision issues it as a credential. The household presents it, the supplier verifies it instantly, and the paperwork disappears. The eligibility decision itself remains the authority's.

Can utilities issue anything useful to customers under eIDAS 2?

Proof of supply at an address is the obvious one. A utility bill is what banks, landlords and public bodies across Europe accept as proof of address, and it is a PDF anyone can edit. Issued as a credential it is instantly verifiable and can be revoked when supply ends.

What about customers who don't use a wallet?

They must still be able to sign up, manage their account and claim support on equal terms.