We have only seen one appetizer so far. Pioneering evidence, few to tell the truth, about twenty overall, of how a system of “prosumer” can be developed in the renewable energy market, consumers who are producers at the same time. The publication, on November 30th, in the Official Gazette of the legislative decree transposing the EU Red II directive on renewables introduces, however, new rules that should give a further boost to the mechanism started in Italy by the Milleproroghe Decree (162 of 2019) with a first test phase, which has now reached its goal after the transposition of European standards and thanks to which self-consumption groups and renewable energy communities (CER) have begun to take hold.
New perimeter
The philosophy is as follows: locally self-produce the energy necessary for one’s needs, but the perimeter is different. Since the self-consumers who aggregate must refer to the same building or condominium (not necessarily residential, but also cooperatives, shopping centers or industrial consortia), while the members of the energy communities must instead be on the low voltage network underlying the same secondary substation ( that is to say the proximity substation, the one closest to the user that transforms the electrical energy from low to medium voltage). A constraint, the latter, overcome with the passage to phase two which has expanded both the perimeter of the Cer (with the possibility, previously denied, that it is now possible to aggregate, for example, an entire district of Rome or a small municipality) and the power of the system. Stopped, in the transitional mechanism, at a maximum of 200 kilowatts and now extended up to one megawatt.
Two stakes, now no longer valid, which however largely explain the current numbers that are destined to increase, as evidenced by the hundreds of projects under development that have come to the attention of the Energy Services Manager (GSE), at the forefront on this front both as promoter of the mechanism and as manager of the monitoring of the measure and of the incentives recognized for 20 years and differentiated for the two types (100-110 euros per megawatt hour), which is accompanied by a refreshment of some tariff components paid in the bill.
Un assist dal Recovery Plan
Now, therefore, we await the full take-off of the mechanism that will be able to exploit the assistance of the Recovery Plan. In fact, article 14 of the decree paves the way for the use of the 2.2 billion euro envisaged by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to support energy communities and collective self-production structures. The Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITE), by the end of February, will have to define an implementing measure for the granting of zero-interest loans up to 100% of the eligible costs for the development of energy communities in small municipalities. The goal is the construction of renewable energy production plants, also combined with energy storage systems. This provision of the Mite must also indicate the conditions of accumulation with the tariff incentives already provided.
This brings us to the heart of the investment that has, as priority beneficiaries, public administrations, families and micro-enterprises in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. The goal is the installation of approximately 2 thousand megawatts of new electricity generation capacity in a distributed configuration by communities and self-consumers. According to government estimates, the implementation of the financed interventions will produce around 2,500 gigawatt hours per year, contributing to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions estimated at around 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year.