Renewable Energy Communities (RECs)

Renewable energy communities (RECs), introduced by the conversion into law of the Decree Milleproroghe 162/2019, represent one of the possible models of collective self-consumption (Autoconsumo Diffuso – AUD) planned by the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment (ARERA). These energy communities are associations of citizens, commercial businesses and enterprises, i.e. electricity consumers, locally producing the renewable energy required to meet their needs, and sharing it amongst the community.

How does a renewable energy community work?

A renewable energy community originates from the establishment of a legal entity by the future members of the community itself, may they be private and/or public entities, with the aim of producing and sharing electricity from renewable sources. The generation plant may belong to the community itself (or to some of its members), but also to a third-party taking charge of the investment. The plant must be connected to the electricity grid through the same primary transformer substation to which the other members of the community are connected.

The single members of a REC can produce part of the electricity they need and share the exceeding part with the other members, thanks to a virtual model involving the use of the public distribution grid. This structure may also include systems to store the electricity that is not consumed.

Once the plant is operational, the community can turn to the GSE (Gestore dei Servizi Energetici), either on its own or via an external representative, to obtain the incentives provided by the laws regarding energy sharing.

What are the benefits of renewable energy communities?

Renewable energy communities have different kinds of advantages:

• Environmental benefits: RECs allow for the reduction in greenhouse gases, meeting the community’s consumption needs with green energy coming from local sources.
• Social aggregation: energy sharing contributes to greater cohesion and collaboration in the communities, involving all citizens within them, and raising awareness towards a rational and efficient energy use.
• Territory enhancement and development of its economy: new job opportunities are created, and the economic return can be used to fight energy poverty and to invest in new local projects.

On the economic side, energy communities can benefit from a few other incentives, rewarding the energy they share:

• ARERA’s «implicit» incentive: it represents the return of tariff components based on reduced losses on both the transmission and distribution grids. The update of this incentive is equal to €8.48/MWh for 2023.
• MASE’s «explicit» incentive: it has not yet been defined, but it will be applied only to those plants that started operating after 15/12/21. The value of the temporary incentive was defined in the Ministerial Decree approved by the MiSE on 16 September 2020 (G.U. 16 November 2020, n.285), and it was equal to 110€/MWh for RECs.

Energy Team’s offer for renewable energy communities

We can support energy communities from the pre-feasibility analysis through to their actual implementation and management.

We will guide you along the whole process with ad hoc products and services, giving you the chance to choose between an integrated solution and single or multiple packages, according to your needs. We will also take care of the whole financing of the initiative.

Create your own customized package:

Our software solutions for renewable energy communities

We offer a range of proprietary software solutions designed to support energy communities:

CloE

Thanks to a dedicated app, we can offer a full management through the automatic acquisition of production and consumption data from meters, suppliers’ portals and third-party platforms. CloE allows the automatization of all aspects related to administration through a highly customizable and extremely easy-to-use tool. This makes it possible to meet the needs of all Renewable Energy Communities.

Microgrid Simulator

A simulation software for the dimensioning of complex systems like micro-grids, with the aim of optimizing the management of an energy district and take full advantage of the potential of complex entities like RECs.

Energy Management
System (EMS)

Designed to develop algorithms for the real-time management of complex energy systems, it allows the optimization of revenues.

Thanks to our wide range of software solutions, we ranked first in the expression of interest promoted by RSE (Ricerca Sistema Energetico / Energy System Research) to find a partner for the development of a digital platform to support Renewable Energy Communities. This result was possible thanks to the proposal of a large, dedicated structure, able to provide 360-degree support for the implementation of innovative solutions within its management platform for energy communities.

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