The decree on energy communities ready to be launched: incentives also defined
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“Finally we are moving towards the end of the bureaucratic process on the subject of renewable energy communities”. Katiuscia Eroe, energy manager of Legambiente, expresses the satisfaction of the associations and municipalities (in addition to Legambiente, among others, the Network of Renewable and Solidarity Energy Communities and the Kyoto Club) who have just delivered their observations on the decree to the Ministry of the Environment implementation for the Cer. The public consultation on the text proposed by the technicians of Mase, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, closed a few days ago, and the balance, at least of a part of the environmentalist world, is all in all positive.
Power
The government opens public consultation on the decree for energy communities
“The basics are there,” Hero confirms. “The decree, while not going into the details of the figures, defines the premium rates for those who self-consume the energy produced by the communities. And it introduces geographical corrections to give everyone the same opportunities, whether you are in the South or in the North”. Taking 100 as the premium rate for the southern regions, it becomes 114 in the Center and 120 in the northern regions, so as to compensate for the different production of photovoltaic energy in the different areas of Italy. “Also because”, Eroe points out, “the initial investment does not change depending on the geographical location. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that energy communities also have a social and not just an economic role, and for this reason they should be encouraged to North as in the South”.
Power
The government opens public consultation on the decree for energy communities
However, there are some specific criticisms. The first concerns electricity transport costs. “One of the advantages of self-consumption is that the electricity doesn’t have to be transported along the grid,” explains Eroe. “We would therefore have expected premiums linked to missing transport costs, which instead do not exist in the ministerial decree. Nor is it specified whether the geographical corrections are in some way a substitute for transport costs”. Then there is the question of small municipalities and primary substations. The new legislation provides that each energy community can be connected to a primary substation. The small islands on which there are two primary substations are an exception: in that case the ministry has foreseen that it is not necessary to create two distinct energy communities. “We have asked that the same criterion be adopted also in small Municipalities on whose territory there are two primary substations”, says Eroe.
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Another controversial point: the percentage of self-consumption below which the GSE (Energy Services Manager) withdraws the electricity produced at a “political” price. The text provides that if more than 70% is self-consumed, the electricity can be fed into the grid at market prices. If it is below 70%, the GSE withdraws the electricity by paying 80 euros per megawatt hour. “We agree on 70% and in general on the mechanism, designed to encourage self-consumption and avoid speculation, with CERs ending up selling their electricity rather than consuming it. But perhaps the 80 euro ceiling will cause discussion because it is considered too low” , suggests the energy manager of Legambiente.
Ecological transition
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Finally, the crux of who will be entitled to the incentives: according to the text submitted for consultation, only those plants whose construction will have been started after the approval of the decree itself. “But this provision is an implementation of decree 199 of 2021”, Heroe points out. “Since then citizens and businesses have taken action in view of the implementation which is only now arriving, with months and months of delay. Thus there is the risk of penalizing all of them”. The ministry’s answer is that the European rules against state aid prohibit the launching of public incentives for works already under construction. “But those works”, objects Legambiente, “started with decree 199, of which this ministerial decree is the implementing part”. Now it will be up to Mase to evaluate all the suggestions collected through the consultation (in addition to the environmental associations and local authorities, companies in the electricity sector took part) and eventually incorporate them into the final version of the decree. At the same time Arera (Regulatory Authority for energy, networks, environment) will have to present the relative regulation, complete with a map of the primary substations, so that each community knows where to connect to the network.
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