This week we visited Getafe, where the city council and the Municipal Land and Housing Company (EMSV) are working with one of the technical assistances provided by the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH). The objective: to develop an energy community model focused on combating energy poverty and strengthening the social fabric.
In the case of Getafe, the company that the EPAH has hired to support the municipality is Ecooo, a non-profit cooperative specializing in renewable energy and self-consumption.
The Getafe City Council is in the process of building two photovoltaic installations on two municipal roofs in the Las Margaritas and La Alhóndiga neighborhoods. These installations will produce renewable electricity that will be shared with vulnerable families. In addition, the aim is to create an energy community to manage these plants, as well as other community energy services.
With these objectives on the table, during the 9 months of EPAH’s technical assistance, a potentially reproducible energy community model will be shaped, both in Getafe and other municipalities.
A look at the EPIU project
The first stop of the visit is at the Oficinas de Hogares Saludables , where a group of technicians advise residents on how to save energy at home and optimize their bills. These offices are a product of the European EPIU project, thanks to which Getafe is working on digital tools to have data that allows to locate hidden energy poverty, as well as to design a service tailored to the needs of the users.
The workers of the Oficinas de Hogares Saludables explain to us how the service works, and how, in addition to informing, they act as mediators with energy marketing companies to resolve conflicts and avoid supply cuts. They share with us the most important facts of the monitoring of each case until they manage to resolve a problem and the measures they must take to improve a family’s energy situation.
After the talk, we begin the session focused on the energy community model.
An indent: Self-consumption or Energy Communities?
It is important that municipalities that are considering producing renewable energy on municipal roofs to combat energy poverty are aware that they have different options. They can build self-consumption facilities, create an energy community or do both depending on their needs and context.
Nowadays, the self-consumption regulations in Spain already allow a city council to install a photovoltaic installation on a public roof and share this energy with neighbors who are within a radius of 1 (approximately 2) kilometers away. This modality corresponds to shared self-consumption. This concept is often similar to that of an energy community, but an energy community may or may not include a self-consumption installation, and it can involve many other things.
Therefore, those municipalities that already have available surface area and financing for a photovoltaic installation can now begin to generate energy and share it with whomever they consider without having to create an energy community.
What does an Energy Community entail?
The existence of an energy community implies that there is a community (group of people and/or organizations that make decisions together), a legal entity that supports it, and also agreements on its objectives, access and participation mechanisms, and governance, among other things.
According to the Spanish legal framework, in Royal Decree-Law 23/2020 of June 23, Renewable Energy Communities are (translated) “legal entities based on open and voluntary participation, autonomous and effectively controlled by partners or members that are located in the vicinity of renewable energy projects that are owned by said legal entities and that they have developed, whose partners or members are natural persons, SMEs or local authorities, including municipalities and whose purpose is to provide environmental, economic or social benefits to their partners or members or to the local areas where they operate, instead of financial profit.”
Forming an energy community, therefore, requires creating or having a legal entity and, subsequently, answering numerous, sometimes complex questions. In this sense, until the Government transposes the two directives relating to energy communities into Spanish legislation, many of the questions will be answered without being certain of having taken the best possible path. We could say that, today, the main advantage of creating an energy community is being able to qualify for subsidies. And in the regulatory bases of the calls, such as those of the IDAE, we can find more information.
Together with technicians from the Getafe Municipal Land and Housing Company, the EPIU and the Ecooo technicians, we discuss the draft proposal. Below we share some of the questions that any energy community project that wants to include families in a situation of vulnerability will have to answer: what legal form is appropriate? In this sense, it is decisive who owns the plant, the management model that is intended to be implemented and the role of the agents that are intended to be involved. A municipal project, in addition, must comply with the regulations relating to public procurement.
We continue with: what are the requirements to participate? Will it be open to interested neighbors? How many people will be able to participate? What percentage of families in a vulnerable situation will there be compared to the total? Will associations be able to participate? If it is built with European funding, is it necessary for the beneficiary parties to repay the investment? Will there be a registration fee? How much? How much energy will be provided to each participant? How will it be communicated? How will families in a vulnerable situation be reached? How will people who cannot pay fees participate? What selection criteria will be followed? What procedures? What are the risks? Where are the main bottlenecks?
During the next 5 months of technical assistance, Getafe will answer these questions with the collaboration of the different municipal delegations and social agents of the affected neighborhoods. Once completed, everything learned will be shared from the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub so that other municipalities can reproduce the experience.
* Chronicle of Alba del Campo. Translation by Carlota Blanquer.
