Upon the expiration of the “Climate-Energy Package 20-20-20,” many challenges remain in the transition towards a progressive decarbonization of the sector. The European Union has set ambitious targets for 2030, including a significantly greater deployment of distributed renewable generation units, and has identified active citizen participation in the production, consumption, and sale of electricity as a key factor for achieving these goals. For this reason, new frameworks have been introduced by the RED-II and IEM directives, allowing citizens to become active participants in the energy system by producing, storing, consuming, and selling self-produced renewable electricity, while retaining the rights and responsibilities of final consumers.

RSE’s study aims to analyze and promote the establishment of pilot projects for Renewable Energy Communities and Collective Self-Consumers, especially in light of the early and experimental national implementation of community regulations. The study identifies critical elements that may influence the development of Energy Communities and collective self-consumption schemes in Italy.

The 2020 activity involves a thorough analysis of previously selected pilot projects to assess the potential impacts of these new schemes on the power system and market. Regarding Renewable Energy Communities, four of the six initially selected projects have been analyzed. This document presents the energy and environmental methodology used and its application to the different cases under review. For the Collective Self-Consumers projects, technical-economic analyses were carried out to ensure the correct sizing of the systems serving the self-consumption scheme, aiming to maximize the benefits for the scheme participants.