Information and tools for suppliers
Elia does everything it can to facilitate the purchasing and invoicing procedure and keep its suppliers properly informed.
General and Specific Conditions
Purchasing conditions
Below you can find our purchasing conditions. Elia Group will buy some specific activities at Group level, whilst others will remain local.
Which purchasing conditions apply for you as a supplier, is determined by contractual agreement. This page simply serves the aim of acquainting you with an overview of our purchasing conditions.
For any questions regarding our purchasing conditions, please get in touch with your usual contact within the Purchasing Department.
Principles
Which Purchasing Conditions apply for you as a Supplier, is determined by contractual agreement. Generally, different purchasing conditions apply according to the following criteria:
- Sourcing category
The type of supplies, services or works delivered
- Value of the purchase
If the contract/PO's value remains below €100K, Elia reserves its right to apply short version of General Purchasing Conditions (GPC) and Specific Purchasing Conditions (SPC). - Date of your contract/PO
Sourcing categories IT, Works, Electrical Equipment, and Services
For purchases from each of the sourcing categories, IT, Works, and Electrical Equipment (PO value ≥ €100k), we have developed tailored versions of the purchasing conditions. For smaller purchases (PO value < €100k) from these sourcing categories, we have developed a Short version of our purchasing conditions.
Depending on the type of purchases ordered by the Services department, the buyer may choose whether purchasing conditions (and if so, which set) shall apply or a stand-alone contract is to be concluded.
* Unless indicated otherwise, this language version prevails in case of discrepancies between the language versions. For the Short version, the prevailing national language version is indicated on the PO/Contract. See clause 1 of the relevant GPC.
Sourcing categories Ancillary Services & Grid Losses, Strategic Reserves, External Parties (Contracting), External Parties Freelance (Contracting)
For Ancillary Services & Grid Losses, Strategic Reserves, External Parties (Freelance) (Contracting) the following purchasing conditions apply.
| Strategic reserves | General purchasing terms and conditions - Strategic reserves v 06/06/2014 | EN | NL | FR |
| Ancillary grid services | General purchasing terms and conditions - Ancillary grid services v 13/05/2013 | EN | NL | FR |
| External parties (contracting) | General purchasing terms and conditions - External parties (contracting) v 16/07/2019 | EN | NL | FR |
| External parties freelance (contracting) | General purchasing terms and conditions - External parties freelance (contracting) v 16/07/2019 | EN | NL | FR |
Previous Purchasing conditions
Ariba Network
E-invoicing in Belgium in 2026
As of January 1st 2026, it will be legally mandatory in Belgium for B2B to send invoices to VAT-registered Belgian companies in format EN16931 (format based on the Peppol network). This means that sending a PDF by email will no longer be sufficient. The impact on you will differ depending on the tool you are using for invoicing (Ariba Business Network vs another tool).
For Belgian suppliers on Ariba?
If like the majority of our suppliers, you are working with us via the Ariba Business network, you won’t be impacted by these changes and your way of working remains the same. Indeed, SAP Business Network (Ariba) is working on getting ready by 1st of January 2026 so our Belgian suppliers can send invoices in the EN16931 format through Ariba.
We encourage you to keep on working on Ariba for the invoicing as it is beneficial for both you and Elia. Ariba ensures data quality, automatic generation of the Service entry sheet, auto-posting of the invoices, and status notification to know in real time if the invoice is sent, approved, rejected or paid. This reduces the processing time of the invoice. If you would still like to move away from Ariba for the invoicing part, you would have to keep using Ariba for the rest of the process (confirmation of the Purchase Order and for the creation of the Service Entry Sheet).
For Belgian suppliers that are not on Ariba?
In order to send an invoice in the right format EN16931, you will have to use a platform, such as Peppol, that is compliant with this format. You could also move to Ariba (see benefits in the paragraph above). If you are interested in learning more about this platform and would like to use it, you can reach out to ariba.suppliers@elia.be or to purchasing.support@elia.be.
Regarding Peppol, we would like to inform you that Elia’s entities will be ready to receive your invoices in format EN16931 for the 1st of January 2026. We will be LIVE on Peppol by the end of November and we will send you a detailed communication at that moment with the instructions about the new invoicing process as well as the impacted entities of Elia.
Additional Information
For further information and detailed guidance, we recommend visiting:
- The Belgian government’s e-invoicing portal: e-invoicing within everyone's reach - e-invoice
- the FAQ section FAQ - e-invoice
- Peppol Official website: https://peppol.org
If you have further questions regarding this topic, feel free to reach out to collection_ap@elia.be (Account Payable team) or to purchasing.support@elia.be (Purchasing Support team).
E-Sourcing (Ariba)
E-Sourcing is used by Elia as a facilitator in our sourcing process. More in particular, Elia will use an E-Sourcing platform to organize sourcing events such as Requests For Information or Requests For Proposal. The E-Sourcing tool gives vendors an opportunity to bid and compete fairly for Elia business.
