Energy Community

The Energy Community is a cooperative made up of private individuals, local businesses, municipalities, local bodies, which contest to be part of the energy transition from fossil fuels to Renewable Energy Sources, promoting at the same time the sustainability and socially inclusive economy. Their formation was based on law 4513 of the year 2018, which in essence facilitated their members to produce their own electricity for their own consumption, as well as for boosting their finances.

The Energy Community is a cooperative made up of private individuals, local businesses, municipalities, local bodies, which contest to be part of the energy transition from fossil fuels to Renewable Energy Sources, promoting at the same time the sustainability and socially inclusive economy. Their formation was based on law 4513 of the year 2018, which in essence facilitated their members to produce their own electricity for their own consumption, as well as for boosting their finances.

The energy democracy is important for the following reasons:

• Firstly, because it is our citizen right to be able to produce our own energy for self- consumption or even for sale to the grid. This right was also enacted at European level.
• Secondly, because the free participation of the people to the generation of energy ensures that the replacement of polluting energy sources with clean and renewable ones, will take place in the fastest and socially fairer way.
• Thirdly, because with the energy communities, other sources of clean energy will be exploited, such as bio-mass, bio-gas, shallow geothermal heat etc. which remain on the margin today since big investors has no interest, although there is great need.

The Energy Communities model has already been established and operates with success in European countries, while the very EU supports their operation, as distinctively mentioned in article 22 of the relevant directive for the renewable energy sources.

More precisely, in the early year of 2019 in Germany, 869 energy communities with 183,000 members, had investments of 2.7 billion euros in renewable energy sources (RES). They held approximately 31.5% of the total installed capacity of RES and apart from the generation, distribution and supply of energy, they expanded to the operation and ownership of electricity grids.

In Denmark, the wind parks were developed at the same time with the energy cooperatives proving that the social participation can keep step with and enhance the innovation and the shift to RES.

The Belgian Ecopower, an energy cooperative active since the 1990s, with 57,000 members today, has a 1.5% share of the market, while through targeted actions for energy efficiency, has contributed to its members saving electricity up to 50% in the last 10 years.

In the Netherlands, there is separate public funding for the support of energy communities since 2019, at the moment that the Dutch climate policy sets a non- binding target for at least 50% of the new wind and photovoltaic projects to be covered by the energy communities.

In Spain, the Energy Community SOM ENERGIA has exceeded the 68,000 members and produces 18 GWh energy, which distributes to its members.

The existing institutional framework ensures favourable conditions for the incorporation and operation of energy communities, which are summarised below:

• Priority to the authorisation of RES projects implementation
• Use of virtual net metering
• Exemption from the obligation to pay an annual fee for the retention of the right to hold an electricity generation licence
• Reduced performance bonds for the registration at the participants registry (50%)
• Exemption from the special fee of 1.7%, when a local authority participates in the energy community
• Special favourable conditions in the case of district heating or management of electric vehicles recharging infrastructure by the energy community
• Specific provisions for energy communities that will authorise thermal energy stations for district heating.
• Transfer of licence, generation stations exclusively to energy communities with similar permitted ways of disposing the surplus for use also within the region.
• Motives for participation in the market – supply of electricity
• Special terms are determined, such as privilege charges, longer term of use in terms of aggregation services used by RES stations and high efficiency cogeneration that energy communities own.