Energy Communities in Italy

Citizens are expected to have a great role in the future global energy transition toward a low-carbon economy and climate neutrality. The creation of energy communities can empower citizens, who become prosumers, providing flexibility and ancillary services, reducing losses and grid investment deferral. It also brings environmental and social benefits, activating virtuous circles in the local economy. The purpose of this work is to analyze the current regulatory framework energy community; a deeper analysis is performed on renewable energy community whose regulation has been already transposed in the Italian regulation. Moreover, a realistic business-case is presented in order to verify the feasibility of a renewable energy community and a collective self-consumption schemes in the CAAB-FICO area. The final part of the work seeks to present an overview of the possible future perspectives regarding energy community and their possible contribution to smart-cities development. Particular attention has been given to the role of the energy management system in an energy community and a how it can be designed to improve the community’s energy efficiency through the implementation of production and load forecasts.