“take energy into our own hands.” first year of community energy in Czechia

Community energy makes it possible to share electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) and strengthen energy self-sufficiency. Lex RES II opened the way for participation through active customers or energy communities. Successfully implemented projects show that community energy can take different forms – from sharing in apartment buildings to large energy communities connecting hundreds of consumption points. The new KOMUNERG subsidy programme is set to provide major support for its development.

Community energy is a way for households, municipalities and companies to jointly use electricity from RES. A key step was the adoption of the amendment to the Energy Act, effective from 2024. 

However, a pioneering electricity-sharing project had already been implemented in 2023, as Markéta Zemanová, a member of the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) Board, said at the Community Energy Conference in Třebíč. It was a limited sharing model in apartment buildings, enabled by an ERÚ regulation. This model also became the basic starting point for setting legislation for further sharing models, this time via the distribution grid.