The Renewable Energy Directive enables a new form of sharing economy for the energy transition. Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are allowed to exchange renewable electricity among its members within geographic proximity without the involvement of an electricity retailer.
As this is a new instrument, significant support is needed to overcome the regulatory, technical, financial and economic challenges and harvest the great potential for the energy transition and the involvement of citizens.
In the context of the Up-Stairs project, the OÖ Energiesparverband (ESV), the regional energy agency, developed their OSS as a support service for the establishment of Energy Communities which supports citizens and municipalities in the region of Upper Austria.
After an intense preparation phase, the service was launched in July 2021, in the moment when the Austrian law allowing the establishment of Renewable Energy Communities entered into force. This enabled the ESV to respond to the significant interest in this new instrument with a well-developed service offer. The offer includes advice and support on regulatory, technical, financial and organisational aspects. 8 engagement events for municipalities, citizens and other key stakeholders were held (roundtables, workshops, training courses, partly on-site, partly online.) with a total of 476 participants. To date, over 350 individual advice sessions (on-site, by phone, video meetings) were held. As a special highlight, the ESV also managed to convince the regional government to launch a dedicated financial support programme for RECs.
Digital Platform of Upper Austria (in German language)
On 7 July 2021, Austria’s Parliament adopted a legal framework (Erneuerbaren Ausbau Gesetz - EAG) that enables the establishment of RECs in Austria. According to this legal framework, citizens, municipalities and SMEs can be members of RECs. They can jointly generate, use, store and sell renewable energy.
To be eligible, members must generate or consume energy within the defined area of an energy community ("proximity"). This is defined as follows:
Objectives of RECs
Benefits for members of the RECs
Within the Upstairs project, 5 Implementation Champions were selected from ESV's team and trained.
To be able to offer a comprehensive support system on RECs, the upskilling included, among others, the following actions:
After an intense preparation phase, the service was launched in July 2021, in the moment when the above mentioned Austrian law entered into force. This enabled the ESV to respond to the significant interest in this new instrument with a well-developed service offer.
The offer and support offer includes advice and support on regulatory, technical, financial and organisational aspects. This is implemented via individual advice sessions and events (so-called engagement events). ESV managed to trigger a very high interest for the services of the OSS: .
8 engagement events for municipalities, citizens and other key stakeholders were held (roundtables, workshops, training courses, partly on-site, partly online.) with a total of 476 participants. To date, over 350 individual advice sessions (on-site, by phone, video meetings) were held. As a special highlight, the ESV also managed to convince the regional government to launch a dedicated financial support programme for RECs.
Key aspects of the service provision:
The following main steps in establishing a REC have been identified:
The following support is offered in different phases of the REC establishment by the OSS