Overview of emerging regulatory frameworks on collective self-consumption and energy communities in Europe

Abstract

Basic self-consumption has many limitations as the amount of investment is significantly lower than it could be if more members would have joined a sort of group or community. The same goes for the physical parameters of an energy-generating unit in a RES power plant. The bigger the PV power plant the bigger amount of generated electrical energy with just a small impact on the investment amount. Apartment blocks have larger roofs to accommodate larger units and enough members/users that are able and interested to contribute to a better environment and to lower their electricity bill. Technology also allows for a sufficient amount of storage of electrical energy and can contribute to secure supply of larger remote groups of buildings in harsh climate conditions. With proper regulatory frameworks in place, the final consumers can form energy communities as one way to participate in collective self-consumption activities. The aim of this review is to understand and compare the emerging regulatory frameworks with those already in place in EU member states. Some countries already made significant progress in the transposition process of the EU framework and thus comply with the provisions of the European Commissions’ Clean Energy Package. Most countries, however, are in an early stage of transposition.