Addressing the gaps in understanding and assessing energy communities
Abstract
Since their explicit mention in the recast of the European Renewable Energy Directive (Directive 2018/2001) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive (Directive 2019/944), energy communities in Europe are gaining increased attention. Nevertheless, despite the increasing literature coverage, their true functioning and needs as well as more technical elements such as their meticulous mapping and an all-encompassing definition of their performance are aspects that still need to be studied, highlighting the complexity of assessing them comprehensively. In this paper, we discuss the various elements that are needed for a proper understanding of energy communities as ever increasingly multifaceted energy actors and try to touch upon various contextual parameters in order to end up with a better understanding of their complexity. In particular, we discuss the need to review the historical and socio-cultural context in which energy communities emerge, the assumed benefits (e.g. inclusion, energy democracy and energy justice) and whether they are justified in practice, as well as the need to thoroughly map them. We conclude with recommendations on how to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of energy communities.
Introduction
People have organized themselves collectively all throughout history, including in citizen participated energy initiatives. However, their broad acknowledgment as relevant players to effectively achieve a sustainable and just energy system is a relatively recent phenomenon. First of all, they break the compartmentalized consumer-producer roles and open the system to other actors, thus giving back citizens agency and increase their role in the energy system. Moreover, they bring enhanced modes of participation for citizens in two ways. On the one hand, citizens are offered a broadened range of ways and moments to participate, i.e. financially and in decision-making, as consumers in the energy sector. On the other hand, citizens can now act as service providers, prosumers and promoters/initiators. Finally, their heterogeneity, alternative functional structures, and devised focus on social benefits provides a generous sample pool for exploring new synergies in an energy system that becomes more complex. Therefore, new arrangements could be investigated between actors that “could” better uphold sustainability, fairness, and democracy as values highlighting the relevance of citizens as active actors in the energy system.
Energy communities are gaining more attention since their explicit mention in the recast of the European Renewable Energy Directive
(Directive 2018/2001) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive (Directive 2019/944). Prior to the introduction of the concepts of Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) and Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) in the European directives, only a limited impact assessment was carried out. In practice, member States show wide variations in their effective implementation, as national or regional impact assessments are still ongoing in some countries or have not yet been initiated in others.
