Attilio Di Sabato (UniTo)

Seminar series “CLOSER, but not quite” –  “Compensation rules in the Italian energy communities: an experimental approach”

Venue: Campus Luigi Einaudi, room 3 D1 01

Abstract: Energy communities (ECs) schemes are gradually expanding in the EU after their introduction with the European RED II (2018) and IEMD (2019) directives on the renewables promotion in the energy market. These new kinds of configurations allow citizens and SMEs to cooperate in local electricity production, as well as storing, sharing and selling the electricity self-produced by using the public grid. In this way the EU pushes for decentralised energy systems, incentivising the self-consumption of electricity within the community. Although the incentives rules are well defined as Member Countries transpose the above directives, the mechanism of incentives distribution is left in the hands of the communities. An unintended consequence of the absence of compensation rules is that members of the ECs do not perceive the payments as fair, pushing them to leave the community, causing it to collapse.
In this framework, the aim of the research is to investigate the two following research questions:
1. Is the energy community configuration perceived as a better investment than the traditional individual photovoltaic system?
2. Which is the incentive’s distribution mechanism between the energy community’s members that does not imply the disaggregation of the community? We analyse three possible distribution  criteria: flat distribution, distribution per square meters (sqm) and distribution based on energy consumption.