Energy-intensive companies: who are they and what relief do they get?

Who counts as an energy-intensive company, from 2024

Since 1 January 2024 the regulation has been Article 3 of Decree-Law 131 of 2023, which brought the relief into line with the 2022 European guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy (CEEAG for short). The Ministerial Decree of 21 December 2017 now applies only up to 2023.

You need at least 1 GWh of electricity consumption in the year before the application and at least one of these conditions:

• working in a sector at high risk of relocation, among those listed in Annex 1 of the European guidelines;
• working in a sector at risk of relocation, in the same annex;
• not being in those sectors, but having received the relief under the 2017 decree in 2022 or 2023.

Companies in difficulty, as defined by the European Commission, are excluded.

How much of the system charges it pays

The relief concerns the part of the general charges of the electricity system that supports renewable sources. The company pays only a share of it, according to its class; gross value added is calculated as a three-year average.

In any case the contribution does not fall below 0.5 €/MWh on energy drawn from the public grid. If your company is in the third row, 2027 costs more: the share rises from 35% to 55%.

The obligations: the audit and a “green” choice

Companies receiving the relief must carry out the energy audit required by Legislative Decree 102 of 2014. The decree of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) of 10 July 2024 requires you to declare it when you register on the list and to send it to ENEA (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development); an ISO 50001 energy management system that includes an audit is also valid.

In addition, for each year of relief, at least one of three routes:

• carrying out the measures from the audit that pay back in no more than three years and cost no more than the relief: at least a third within the year, the rest within the following two years;
• covering at least 30% of electricity consumption with energy that emits no carbon: self-generation, forward contracts with renewable producers (the guide to contracts with producers) or cancelled guarantees of origin;
• investing at least half of the relief in projects that substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Checks are coordinated by ENEA. Anyone who fails to meet the obligations repays the relief, in whole or in part, and receives no further relief until it has been repaid.

The CSEA list: the dates for 2027

The CSEA draws up the list every year, on its portal for electricity-intensive users. For 2027:

• the declaration is submitted from 30 September to 16 November 2026, by 23:59;
• companies set up in 2026, or left without consumption due to inactivity, have until 31 December 2026;
• after that, only the supplementary session remains;
• the contribution to the CSEA’s costs is €100 in the ordinary session and €500 in the supplementary one, to be paid within 15 days: without it, you are not entered on the list, and it is not refunded;
• the CSEA publishes the list, divided by class, by 18 December 2026.

The portal does not accept a declaration without the requirements. The receipt by certified email (PEC) only confirms submission: the checks come later.

Gas-intensive companies, Energy Release, excise duties: three different things

Gas-intensive companies have a decree of their own, of 21 December 2021: average gas consumption of at least 1 GWh a year (about 94,582 standard cubic metres) over the reference three-year period, in a sector listed in the decree. They pay part of the general gas charges for energy saving and renewables, must have an energy audit or an ISO 50001 system, and their list too is drawn up by the CSEA, year by year.

Energy Release is a different measure: it advances energy at 65 €/MWh to energy-intensive companies for three years, to be returned over the following twenty years through new renewable plants. The MASE decree of 29 July 2025 confirmed the energy allocated according to the applications accepted by the GSE (Italy’s energy services operator) in March 2025.

Excise duties are a tax, not a system charge: the regulation is the Consolidated Excise Act (Legislative Decree 504 of 1995, amended in 2025), administered by the Customs and Monopolies Agency. It provides for uses that are exempt, subject to relief or not subject to excise duty.

What EKA does for an energy-intensive company

When you consume a lot, a few euros per MWh weigh a lot. We take the work of contracts, invoices and relief off your hands: we renegotiate supplies, recalculate every invoice item by item with Calibra, charges and excise duties included, and take care of excise duty exemptions and relief. With the market report, which we send to clients every day, we tell you when to fix the price. The service for consumers · the guide to the energy invoice.