Energy communities, energy cooperatives, energy clusters

Cooperatives Act
Electricity Market Act
RES Act
NECP

Energy communities are not yet defined in the Croatian legislative framework, which makes it difficult to conduct such projects.
Currently, such projects are implemented in the legal form as cooperatives. There are several examples of this in Croatia, but nothing widespread, large scale, and streamlined yet.
In Croatia, cooperatives are not bound by geographical area, but there are certain other setbacks which could discourage one from joining, e.g. an unemployed member of a cooperative cannot use unemployment benefits, etc.
Energy cooperatives can participate in energy markets if they obtain a relevant licence. In the Croatian electricity market, a producer with installed capacity of over 1 MW must have a licence for performing an energy activity, issued by the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (HERA). If the installed capacity is less than 1 MW, the licence for performing an energy activity is not required, but, of course, other procedures with the TSO, DSO, and HROTE (the Croatian energy market operator) must be followed.
Even though energy communities are not defined in Croatia, industrial and commercial entities can conduct energy sharing in a closed distribution system, as defined in the Electricity Market Act. A closed distribution system (CDS) is defined as a system which distributes electricity within a geographically closed industrial and/or commercial location.
There are currently legislative changes in process which are going to define energy communities in the Croatian legislative framework. Specifically, a new version of the Act on Renewable Energy Sources and High-Efficiency Cogeneration (the RES Act) is currently in the public consultation procedure. The new version of the act defines renewable energy communities, as required by the RED II Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources).

Private citizens; Businesses

Private citizens: the minimum number of members of a cooperative is 7.
Businesses: the closed distribution system (CDS) needs to meet the following requirements: the metering point of the system owner is connected to the transmission network; the system doesn’t distribute electricity to households, except households located in the CDS area; business and production processes of CDS users are integrated/interconnected, e.g. technical or security reasons; the system distributes electricity primarily to the owner or operator of the CDS (or his affiliates), taking up at least 80% of the capacity. Furthermore, the status of a eligible producer is not allowed for the closed distribution system.

• Energy communities, energy cooperatives, energy clusters   : Relevant