In this regard, Directive 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED II) and Directive 2019/944 of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity (EMI Directive) introduced new individual and collective self-consumption schemes into EU law, defined ‘Energy Communities’ and ensured their participation in markets.

According to the directives, ‘Energy Communities’ are legal entities whose members are individuals, local authorities (including municipalities) and small- and medium-sized enterprises. ‘Energy Communities’ can exchange within them the energy that is produced by the generating units they own, have access to all electricity markets, and can undertake the role of producers, consumers, suppliers and distribution grid operators.

As part of the 2019-2021 Three-year System Research Plan, also in order to contribute to the process of transposition of the aforementioned directives, RSE will carry out a cost-benefit analysis of ‘Energy Communities’ and ‘Joint Self-consumption’ schemes from the energy, economic, environmental and social point of view, with reference to both entities involved in said communities and electricity-energy system as a whole, also considering their potential replicability and scalability. The study will identify barriers (regulatory, technical, legislative, administrative, environmental, social, etc.) that could limit their development with a view to the future replicability of similar projects. In the activities, reference will be made to the ‘Renewable Energy Communities’ of RED II which, in addition to providing for the use of renewable energy sources only, stipulates that the communities be controlled by shareholders or members who are located in the vicinity of the production facilities that belong to and have been developed by the community. RED II also introduces ‘renewables joint self-consumers’ (1-N, a generating facility and multiple consumers), the technical and economic characteristics of which will also be the subject of further study.

To effectively carry out these activities, RSE intends to realise, study, monitor and assess ‘pilot projects’ for ‘Renewable Energy Communities’ and ‘Joint Self-Consumption’ schemes, to concretely assess their feasibility and potential benefits, in advance of the full transposition of these directives into the national legislative and regulatory framework. RSE’s role will be neither that of a member of the energy communities, nor that of an investor or financier for the realization of energy communities.

On the contrary, through the establishment of a multidisciplinary working group, RSE, in close collaboration with local stakeholders, intends to undertake the coordination, design (including in regulatory and technological terms), monitoring and assessment of the results of the realised pilot projects, for the purposes of the above-mentioned analyses. In addition, in compliance with Article 3, Paragraph 6 of the Decree dated 9 August 2019, periodic updates will be provided to the Regulatory Observatory established at ARERA.