Legislative options and obstacles for energy communities in Belgium: Summary of key issues identified & recommendations, ROLECS project Task 2.3.1

As part of three decades of an ongoing transformation process of the energy transition, the European Union (EU) agreed in 2015 to increase its efforts to build an energy union that provides European consumers with secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy. To achieve this goal, the European Commission introduced in 2018 the ‘Clean Energy for all Europeans’ package (CEP). Currently, this normative framework is composed by eight pieces of legislation addressing energy performance in buildings, renewable energy, energy efficiency, governance regulation, electricity market design and adoption processes by Member States (MS) in the EU. The regulation of energy communities (ECs) falls within the scope of the CEP. More specifically, the Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) and Internal Electricity Market Directive (IEMD) set a basis for implementation of rules related to Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs).

In the context of the ROLECS project and in line with its aim of gaining a deeper understanding of, and shaping the potential of Local Energy Communities, this paper highlights some of the key legal issues and uncertainties for the implementation of the European Frameworks for energy communities in Belgium, and in particular in Flanders.