Czech South Moravian Region to establish electricity-sharing community, seeks grant

The South Moravian Region plans to establish an energy community by the end of next year, enabling institutions, businesses, non-profit organizations and residents of the region to share electricity from renewable sources under the community energy model. Regional Governor Jan Grolich (KDU-ČSL) today signed a memorandum of cooperation on the project with representatives of businesses and associations.

„Community energy is a major topic at the moment, and the Ministry of the Environment has announced grants for setting up pilot energy communities. We are therefore the first region in Czechia to pursue the establishment of a community, and we will be paving the way for others,“ Grolich said.

The community should enable its members to share surplus electricity generated from renewable sources. „Another advantage is that shared energy earns a higher return than selling it to the grid – within the community, every owner of a photovoltaic system saves money, both as an energy producer and as a consumer,“ Grolich added.

The memorandum was signed today by representatives of the South Moravian Innovation Centre, Intemac Solutions and FabLab Brno, which are regional organizations, as well as a representative of the Sonnentor company and the Brno-based organization Junák – Czech Scouting.

The regional company CEJIZA is working on setting up the community. It purchases electricity and gas for the region and its organizations, and also handles energy management.

„We have successfully passed the first round of the grant application process. One of the requirements for the second round is this memorandum. The community should ultimately include around 200 entities, and a memorandum must be signed with each of them,“ said CEJIZA managing director Libuše Podolová.

In addition to legal requirements and rules governing how such a community will operate, software will also be needed to manage the distribution and billing of the electricity shared in this way. The South Moravian Innovation Centre also plans to take part in this area.

„This is a major opportunity for our start-ups and companies, because community energy is a global issue. While Austria and Germany are several years ahead of us in this area, the United States, for example, is lagging far behind, opening up a huge future market for such software solutions,“ said JIC director Petr Chládek.