All the answers on renewable energy communities. In this section you’ll find the most frequently asked questions on how RECs work, who can take part, what the requirements are and how to access GSE incentives. If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for or have a specific question, the Romeo Group Fotovoltaica team is available.
A REC is a group of citizens, small and medium-sized enterprises, territorial bodies and local authorities, including municipal administrations, cooperatives, research bodies, religious bodies, third sector and environmental protection entities, who share renewable electricity produced by systems available to one or more members of the community.
In a REC, renewable electricity can be shared among the different producers and consumers located within the same geographical perimeter defined by the primary substation, thanks to the use of the national electricity distribution network, which makes it possible to virtually share such energy.
The main goal of a REC is to provide environmental, economic and social benefits to its members or shareholders and to the local areas in which it operates, through self-consumption of renewable energy.
Energy Communities aim to achieve a high degree of energy self-sufficiency, reducing dependence on fossil sources and promoting a more environmentally and economically sustainable supply style.
First of all, it’s necessary to identify the areas where to build systems powered by renewable sources and the users with whom to associate to share the electricity.
It is then necessary to legally set up the REC, in the form of an association, third-sector entity, cooperative, benefit cooperative, consortium, non-profit organisation, etc., that is, to provide the REC with its own legal autonomy through any form that guarantees compliance with the main founding objectives. Each REC is therefore characterised by a founding act, a statute and internal regulations outlining the rules for distributing benefits among members.
An energy consumer or renewable energy producer can join the REC at the legal setup stage, or at a later stage, according to the methods provided for in the acts and statutes of the REC itself.
A REC is a community that aggregates producers from renewable sources and energy consumers. It is therefore possible to take part in the REC as:
No, large companies cannot be members of a REC.
In order to access the incentives provided for RECs, production systems powered by renewable sources must have a power of no more than 1 MW. These systems are generally new builds, although already built systems can be part of a REC, provided that they entered service after 16 December 2021 (the date the D.lgs. 199/2021 came into force) and in any case after the regular setup of the REC.
Furthermore, for the purposes of accessing the benefits provided by the Incentive Decree, the systems must not benefit from other incentives on the production of electricity.
Yes, there is a geographical constraint. All consumers and all producers must be located in the geographical area whose connection points to the national electricity grid (POD) are subject to the same primary electrical substation.
The interactive map of conventional areas subject to the primary substations present on the national territory can be consulted here, made available by the GSE, in collaboration with the distribution companies.
For all RECs, two types of economic compensation are envisaged on self-consumed (shared) energy:
It should also be noted that all renewable electricity produced but not self-consumed remains available to the producers and is valued at market conditions. For this energy, it is possible to request access from the GSE to the economic conditions of dedicated withdrawal.
Finally, for RECs whose production systems are located in Municipalities with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants, a capital contribution equal to 40% of the investment cost is envisaged, drawing on PNRR resources.
The incentive tariff recognised by the GSE, on the quantity of electricity shared by a REC, consists of a fixed and a variable part.
The incentive tariff decreases in its fixed part as the system’s power increases, while the variable part fluctuates between 0 and €40/MWh depending on the price of energy (as the market price of energy decreases, the variable part increases up to a maximum of €40/MWh).
The incentive tariff and the ARERA contribution are recognised exclusively on electricity self-consumed by the REC. This quantity of energy is equal to that virtually shared, in each hour, among the producers and consumers who are members of the REC, located in the portion of the distribution network subject to the same Primary Substation. The self-consumed electricity is determined by the GSE — therefore at no cost to the members of the community — on the basis of measurements automatically transmitted by the energy distributors to the GSE. For each hour, the GSE will check the amount of energy produced by all the systems that are part of the same REC and the amount of energy taken by each consumer of the REC. The self-consumed (shared) energy will therefore be equal to the lower value between these two energy sums.
The beneficiary of the PNRR contribution is the entity that bears the investment for the construction of the renewable production system with a power of up to 1 MW, included in the REC, located in Municipalities with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants.
The PNRR capital contribution is equal to 40% of the expenses incurred for the construction of renewable systems, within the limits of eligible expenses and the following maximum investment costs depending on the power size:
Value added tax (VAT) is not eligible for the subsidies, except in the case where it is not recoverable under VAT legislation.
The following expenses are eligible:
The last four expense items listed above are financeable up to a maximum of 10% of the amount admitted to financing.
Yes, the incentive tariff can be combined with the PNRR contribution or other capital contributions, up to a maximum of 40%, in exchange for a reduction of the incentive tariff of 50%.
Therefore, if a producer obtained a capital contribution of any type greater than 40% of the investment cost (calculated on the basis of the caps previously illustrated), it is not possible to obtain the incentive tariff for the electricity produced by the system in question.
No. The incentive tariff does not apply to electricity produced by photovoltaic systems that have accessed the Superbonus. For such systems, the right remains to obtain the ARERA contribution for the valorisation of the self-consumed electricity.
It is however possible to obtain the incentive tariff in the case of having taken advantage of the 50% tax deductions for building renovations (provided for in Article 16-bis, paragraph 1, letter h), of the consolidated text on income taxes referred to in the decree of the President of the Republic of 22 December 1986, no. 917). 917). However, these systems cannot access other capital contributions, including the one provided by the PNRR.
Yes. In the event that the system is the beneficiary of a capital financing, the incentive tariff is reduced proportionally according to the % of co-financing.
In the extreme case of a 40% capital contribution, the incentive tariff is reduced by 50%.
Yes, it is possible. The stored energy is considered, through specific algorithms, as energy shared within the REC and therefore incentivised.
Yes, in a REC there may also be charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and the energy absorbed for vehicle charging, through specific algorithms, is considered by the GSE for the purpose of calculating the energy shared within the REC.
No, production systems powered by renewable sources and individual consumption utilities of end customers can only belong to one REC.
It is, however, possible for the same entity to belong to two different RECs with separate consumption utilities or production systems under its own ownership.
All REC participants — whether consumers or prosumers (consumers who own a renewable production system and produce energy for themselves and for the REC members) — maintain their rights as end customers, including the right to choose their electricity supplier, and have the option of leaving the Community when they wish, according to the rules and indications contained in the statute.
The same entry and exit rights are also guaranteed to producers from renewable sources.
This group includes holders of connection points located in the same building or condominium who consume electricity produced by production systems located in the area pertaining to the building/condominium itself or in other areas, belonging to the same market zone, which are at the full disposal of one or more entities that are part of the configuration and that have given mandate to the same Reference Person for the setup and management of the configuration.
The production systems can be managed by producers that are part of the group or by a third-party producer, possibly coinciding with the Reference Person of the configuration, provided that they are subject to the instructions of one or more members of the configuration.
The electricity withdrawn for sharing purposes may also include withdrawals by end customers not part of the configuration, provided that they are holders of connection points located in the same building/condominium.
In this case, the entities that are part of the configuration are a consumer and a producer — which coincides with the consumer or is a third party subject to the instructions of the consumer — whose respective consumption and production units are connected via a direct power line no longer than 10 km and located in areas at the full disposal of the consumer and that have given mandate to the same Reference Person for the setup and management of the configuration.
The only difference from the “individual self-consumer at a distance with direct line” configuration is that the production systems and consumption units must be located in the same market zone and not directly connected by a power line.
NO. Membership of the REC is possible for both private entities (companies, citizens) and public entities (municipalities/companies held by the Public Administration).
NO, there is no limit to the number of systems but there is a limit only on the maximum power of each individual system which cannot be greater than 1 MW.
In any case, for the correct sizing of the community, the cumulative power of the systems should be such as to try to maximise the shared energy, or in any case to have a high percentage of shared energy, in order to optimise investment payback times.
NO. Each community or collective self-consumption can establish its own distribution criteria based on its own assessment criteria explicitly set out in the statute and the internal regulations.
