An energy community is a group of individuals who share common interests and cooperate in energy actions such as generating, storing, consuming or selling the community’s own energy. EU energy legislation addresses two types of communities: ‘renewable energy communities’ (REC) and ‘citizen energy communities’ (CEC). Both are defined as legal entities based on voluntary participation, whose main purpose is to provide environmental, economic or social community benefits to their members or shareholders or to the local areas where they operate rather than to generate financial profits.
In the context of GRETA, energy communities can be localized or virtual (i.e. not bound by geography). Energy communities’ energy activities can include community services, joint purchase, collective ownership, energy supply, exchange and selling, demand response, or cross-domain services.
