Energy communities, energy cooperatives, energy clusters

• DL 162/2019
• Directive 1/2021
• Ordinance 332/2012
• Ordinance 592/2010
• Regulation 266/2020
• Order 6453/2020

Energy communities and collective energy producers are regulated by DL 162/2019, which is the latest amendment to the regulation for self-consumption in Portugal.

Energy communities must produce and self-consume electricity from renewable energy sources.
Participation in energy communities must be feasible for every energy consumer, especially for low-income families in vulnerable situation (art. 19, para. 7, letter f DL 162/2019).
As defined in art. 2 of DL 162/2019, energy communities are based on an open and voluntary membership of its members, partners or shareholders, who may be natural or legal persons, of a public or private nature, including small and medium-sized companies or local authorities, which is autonomous from its members or partners, but effectively controlled by them.

Energy communities are bound to the same regulations that apply to the individual self-consumption regime (art. 20, para. 2 DL 162/2019). Energy communities have to register their electricity-production units and obtain a production licence following the rules laid down in art. 21 of DL 162/2019. The energy produced by these communities may be traded via a contract for the acquisition and sale of energy or a market facilitator (art. 4 DL 162/2019).

The tariff structure applicable to energy communities is the same as the one for individual self-consumption actors, which is the grid access tariffs deducted from the grid usage tariffs corresponding to the self-consumption unit voltage (art. 29 of Regulation 266/2020). Tariff prices applicable to them (for the year 2021) are described in pages 170-172 of Directive 1/2021.

According to art. 3, letter b of Order 6453/2020, energy communities whose projects involve the utilisation of the grid can benefit from a complete (100%) reduction in expenses listed as General Economic Interest Costs (CIEG), described in art. 3, para. 1 of Ordinance 332/2012, such as:
• Costs arising from the special regime production from renewable sources;
• Costs related to tariff convergence with the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira; and
• Costs related to the Plan for the Promotion of Efficiency in Consumption (PPEC), which is a set of measures to promote efficiency in consumption, provided for in the tariff regulation.
if they: i) are structured according to the rules defined in article 2, letter j of DL 162/2019; and i) if no contract of services has been agreed upon, according to Ordinance 592/2010.

• Energy communities, energy cooperatives, energy clusters   : Relevant