The White Paper “The Energy Communities in Italy: rules and benefits for the National Economic System“, produced in collaboration with the Energy & Strategy research group of the Politecnico di Milano, is a useful guide to navigate the transformation of the electricity market.
The research provides a picture of the current Italian and European legislative situation, helping market operators to identify the main economic, social and environmental benefits of the Renewable Energy Communities in Italy.
The energy communities: the european regulatory framework
The development path of the legislation on Energy Communities and on collective self-consumption in general started with the publication by the European Commission, in February 2015, of the “Energy Union Strategy” that aims to strengthen and improve the energy service for EU consumers by making it safer, more sustainable, competitive and cheaper. In order to pursue the “Energy Union Strategy”, some policy packages have been published: the key one is the “Clean Energy for all European Package” ” (CEP), published for the first time in November 2016 and completed in March 2019. The most important directives included in the CEP are:
The energy communities: the regulatory framework in italy
Italy has started the transposition process of the RED II Directive to include the configurations introduced at European level in the Italian regulatory framework.
The process began with the Decreto Mille Proroghe (so-called “Thousand-extension” Decree-Law, which came into force in February 2020, which introduced the definitions listed below in Italian legislation for the first time:
- Renewable energy self-consumers acting collectively,
- Renewable Energy Communities..
It then continued with the publication of the ARERA Resolution no 318/2020 August 2020) and was concluded (to date) with the MiSE (Ministry of Economic Development) Implementing Decree, in September 2020.
Transposition and implementation of red ii (2018/2001 directive) and iem (2019/944) directives
Il 5 agosto 2021 il Consiglio dei Ministri ha (finalmente) approvato in via preliminare il decreto attuativo di diverse direttive tra cui proprio la RED II e la IEM (2019/944) (qui il testo della bozza).
On 5 August 2021, the Council of Ministers (finally) gave preliminary Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (INECP) and intends to further accelerate the ecological transition to renewable sources and achieve the set goals. The RED II Directive in fact establishes that by 2030, renewable energies will have to affect the gross final consumption of energy at European level by at least 32%.
The main measures include:
- Simplification of authorisations for the installation of RES plants, creating more streamlined procedures;
- Simplification for accessing incentive mechanisms, , and introduction of five-year program to provide stability and encourage investments in the sector;
- Promotion for combining procedures between renewable sources and storage systems;
- Acceleration in developing the electricity and the gas networks, and completing the liberalisation of the retail markets, safeguarding the most vulnerable customers;
- Regulating the new configurations of citizens’ energy communities in a coordinated manner, and strengthening the rights of end customers in terms of transparency (offers, contracts and bills).
The benefits of renewable energy communities for the national economic system
The estimate of the spread of the various configurations of renewable energy self-consumers acting collectively and of the renewable energy communities that will be implemented over the next five years is calculated on the basis of three different penetration scenarios of these initiatives: a “moderate”, an “intermediate” and an “accelerated” scenario.
- The moderate”scenario hypothesises that critical issues may arise in terms of "awareness" on the part of the energy users about the opportunities represented by collective self-consumption or by renewable energy communities (especially during a first market development phase) and their effective ability to promote the implementation of these initiatives.
- The “intermediate” penetration scenario hypothesises that the spread of these configurations is mainly based on initiatives promoted "from the bottom upwards", i.e. by energy users who decide to form a group of renewable energy self-consumers acting collectively or renewable energy communities.
- The “accelerated” scenario hypothesises that a key role for the development of collective self-consumption initiatives and renewable energy communities is played by "developers", third parties who actively promote the creation of configurations, but who do not belong to them as members
