The EU Clean Energy Package has reassured support for citizen engagement in the energy sector especially through collective action and energy communities. In 2020 started a three year Horizon 2020 project called DECIDE (Developing Energy Communities through Informative anD collEctive action) that aims to gain a better understanding of how energy communities and energy efficiency services are established and managed.

The project is actively following the development of regulatory frameworks on EU level and specifically for the five involved countries (Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Germany and Greece). In 2021, in coordination with seven pilots the project will organize regulatory workshops with relevant stakeholders to discuss possible improvements of the regulations for easier involvement of citizens in energy collective actions and smoother operation of such initiatives and energy communities.

While some EU countries, such as Germany and Netherlands have a history of cooperative citizen engagement within sustainable energy projects, others are introducing energy community concepts for the first time with the transposition of the Clean Energy Package. DECIDE will follow these activities through annual policy reviews that will be available on our website as well.

Finally, as the pilots are expanding, and the ground is being prepared for the involvement of replicators, on 17th and 18th of May the project will host a publicly accessible online DECIDE event. During this two-half day event, the project partners and other Energy Community projects will discuss variations in the regulatory framework among different EU countries and exchange experiences in  helping citizens engage in energy community actions.

Stay tuned, follow DECIDE on Twitter and LinkedIn for upcoming news.