Expected benefits and foreseen steps in creating energy communities in Romania

Abstract

In 2019 the EU updated its energy policy (by adopting the Clean energy for all Europeans package) to enhance the transition from fossil fuels towards green energy - implementing the commitments of the EU’s Paris Agreement (adopted at the COP21 in December 2015) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement on this new energy rulebook marked a significant step towards implementing the energy union strategy, published in 2015. Through this package, the EU has introduced the concept of energy communities in its legislation, notably as citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities. To incorporate the new regulations introduced by this package in the Romanian law, the Romanian government issued an Emergency Ordinance (143/December 28, 2021), that updates the Electrical energy and natural gas law (123/2012). The concept of energy communities is, from now on, part of our own legislation, and the creation of such communities in Romania can start, although there are still many questions regarding the effective steps to be taken in this process. This paper tries to emphasize the foreseen advantages of this new concept and how it could be implemented in our country.