Energy communities, energy cooperatives, energy clusters

• Law 24/2013
• RDL 15/2018
• RD 244/2019
• RDL 23/2020

Spain still has not fully completed the transposition of the EU Directive REDII (2018/2001) regarding Energy Communities nor has it transposed later EU Directive 2023/2413. The RDL 23/2020 modified Law 24/2013 and introduced some first references to Renewable Energy Communities. Thus, renewable Energy Communities are established as legal entities based on open and voluntary participation, autonomous and effectively controlled by partners or members who are located in the vicinity of renewable energy projects owned and developed by such legal entities, whose partners or members are natural persons, SMEs or local authorities, including municipalities and whose primary purpose is to provide environmental, economic or social benefits to their partners or members or to local areas where they operate, rather than financial gain. They may be based on installations of any energy vector, as long as it is renewable.

Usually, but not always, they consist of members located in the vicinity of renewable energy projects and developed by them. The primary purpose of Renewable Energy Communities is to provide environmental, economic, or social benefits to their partners or members or to the local areas where they operate, rather than getting financial profit. 

Apart from that the auctions organized to grant the support scheme (Economic Regime for Renewable Energies) can take into consideration the particularities of these communities so that they can compete on an equal footing with other participants. 

Partners or members of Renewable Energy Communities usually are located in the vicinity of renewable energy projects owned and developed by the communities. 

The partners or members are natural persons, SMEs or local authorities, including municipalities and whose primary purpose is to provide environmental, economic or social benefits to their partners or members or to the local areas where they operate, rather than financial profit.

In the case of collective self-consumption, all the consumers associated to the same generation unit must be under the same self-consumption modality and shall communicate to the distribution company an agreement signed by all participants, which includes the distribution criteria (article 4, RD 244/2019).

The energy that is self-consumed and comes from renewable sources, cogeneration or waste is exempted from all types of charges and tolls (article 9, Law 24/2013). 

If there is transfer of energy through the distribution grid to nearby facilities for the purposes of self-consumption, fees for this usage may be established (article 9, Law 24/2013).

In collective self-consumption, the generation units can be interconnected through the grid, which means that energy sharing between buildings is allowed, however, there are some limitations. 

The interconnection through the grid shall fall in one of the following options: a) the units are connected to any of the low voltage networks derived from the same transformer substation; or b) both generation and consumption are connected at low voltage and at a distance of less than 500 meters from each other; or c) both generation and consumption are located in the same cadastral reference according to their first 14 digits (article 3, RD 244/2019). 

When the self-consumption is carried out between near installation through the grid, collective self-consumption may belong to any of the modalities “with surplus” (article 3, RD 244/2019).

Not yet regulated, but RDL 23/2020 recognises the possibility of Renewable Energy Communities to participate in auctions to compete for the remuneration framework (Economic Regime for Renewable Energy). 

Under the modalities of self-consumption “with surplus”, consumers can decide to sell all electricity surplus directly on the market, or they can be compensated through a simplified mechanism (Net billing), where every month the value of the energy taken from the grid is compensated with the value of the surplus generation fed into the grid. 

Nevertheless, the maximum amount that can be compensated is the value of the energy taken from the grid (the energy purchased by the consumer) because the result of the compensation cannot be negative and may not offset other access fees.

Lastly, to help the initial development of energy commmunities, a specific program for granting aid to Community Transformation Offices (OTC) for the promotion and dynamization of energy communities was launched by IDAE and the program CE-Implementa (6th call) that provide grants in the form of a non-refundable subsidy to energy communities, which will be definitively received by the beneficiary once the execution of the project verified and the investment certified.

• Energy communities, energy cooperatives, energy clusters   : Relevant