Community energy within reach

change can be initiated by municipalities

COMMUNITY ENERGY, SMART ELECTRICITY, CARBON NEUTRALITY. TERMS THAT WE HAVE HEARD MORE AND MORE OFTEN IN RECENT YEARS FROM THE MAYORS OF LARGE CITIES AS WELL AS SMALL MUNICIPALITIES. LAST YEAR, SOME EVEN JOINED THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY DECLARATION. THERE ARE ALREADY SEVERAL SUCH SUSTAINABLY AMBITIOUS PROJECTS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC. IN KNĚŽICE IN THE NYMBURK DISTRICT, THEY PRODUCE THEIR OWN HEAT AND GREEN ELECTRICITY.

: How to start when you want a smart city, town, or district?

In Hostětín, a small village in the heart of the Carpathians, they built a passive house, an organic cider house and a root wastewater treatment plant, which provides water for the whole village. And in Židlochovice in the Brno region, they are again preparing to build a smart district with houses that will be energy-effi cient in terms of electricity and water consumption. For projects of this type to be created in larger numbers, changes in the laws are needed. According to František Vašek from Nano Energies, we can infl uence the speed of these changes ourselves. He sees inspiration, for example, in Bristol, England, where a cooperative energy community has been operating successfully for several years. It is a pilot project that was also sanctioned by the British regulator Ofgem when it granted an exemption for Bristol. „Bristol sends a message that says that when we join forces, we can implement similar projects in our country and test on them how to set rules for everyone else according to the experience and data gained,“ explains Vašek.

At Nano Energies, where he leads the division dealing with renewables and sustainability, they already have experience with community energy. They cooperate, for example, with the thermally self-suffi cient village Kněžice. Current legislation does not allow them to send the green energy they produce directly to local outlets. Nano Energies therefore buys green electricity from them and then sends it back. They also prepared a special tariff for Kněžice, which will save the locals on power electricity. So far, it is only considered in the price of the distribution, but the mayor is already thinking about the next stage and use of the local network, which will physically reach the electricity produced in the village.

According to Vašek, there are several possibilities for following the Kněžice path. From the construction of its own municipal energy source, through the installation of selected buildings with photovoltaic panels, which can thus become energy self-suffi cient, to the transition to a green tariff . At all points, Nano Energies off ers experience and a helping hand.

: Four steps to your own source of green energy

According to Vašek, the construction of the own source has several stages. „The fi rst step is to compile an energy balance. We look at what objects are in the village, how many consumers there are and accordingly we will recommend a type of source that is tailor-made for the place and corresponds to the expected consumption. Then comes technological feasibility. The possibilities of connection to electricity distribution, measurement of production, consumption and overfl ows into the network, the need for source stabilization, potential for accumulation of surpluses and operational management of the whole microgrid to maximize own consumption of produced electricity - in short, the technology we need to prepare a technical proposal. František Vašek explains the individual phases.

„Subsequently, we prepare an economic balance sheet. Municipalities can also make money from electricity generation if, for example, they get involved in providing fl exibility,” he explains. Nano Energies has extensive experience in the fi eld of energy fl exibility, where it helps to monetize excess current for several clients. „No one in the communal has done it yet, but it can happen. If there is interest in it, we will be happy to help. Probably no other company in the Czech Republic has as much experience with energy fl exibility as we do.”

The last, fourth phase, is the operating model itself. „It happens that clients only want to help with this step. We have developed and tested software that is fl exible. We can transfer it to virtually any project. We then take care of everything related to the transmission of electricity - network maintenance, metering, billing of energy fl ows. We usually know our clients personally, so we really tailor

the service to their needs,” he explains.

: Old or new energy? Mayors may decide

According to Vašek, municipalities that decide to follow this energy-visionary path often struggle, for example, with spatial planning or a lack of funds. They solve these either by debt or by applying for subsidies. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been claiming for a long time that few processed projects go to subsidies, which also justifi es the low amount of funds they allocate to them. According to František Vašek, it is in the project applications for subsidies that there is another great potential for how society can force the state to provide greater support for community energy. „It is very important that these projects are created. The ministry now plans to allocate only the minimum amount of funds it receives from the EU, because municipalities do not submit projects. If they start submitting them, it may change. And if that doesn‘t happen, there‘s a big risk that the old, fossil energy will swallow that money,“ he explains.

And what direction should legislative change go? According to František Vašek, the Mieterstrom model, which operates in neighbouring Germany, is a good inspiration. „Imagine, for example, an apartment building that produces its own green electricity with photovoltaic panels on the roof. They mix it with conventional electricity from the grid and the mix then goes to the sockets of the house‘s inhabitants. The house has a device at the foot that can calculate how much electricity they produced themselves and how much they took from the grid. It is advantageous for both parties - the residents save money because they generate electricity partly themselves and the distributor is still in the game,” Vašek describes the model operation. He can imagine it even in Czech conditions. „The distributor would be given a new obligation for selected metering cases to share with the group of customers and consider in the total payment for distribution the part of electricity that was produced and consumed locally. And it could work not only for apartment buildings, but also for entire municipalities or other associated communities,“ he presents his vision. Support should be given to projects with a clear potential for renewables - such as the recovery of energy-effi cient waste or natural energy.

The push in waste management will signifi cantly change the game. Municipalities must stop landfi lling by 2030 at the latest. This raises the question of what happens to waste. „I recommend not postponing this decision. Think about what can be done diff erently and we can always do it better. Analyse old emissions, sources, see if landfi lling cannot be solved otherwise, for example by incineration and help with heat production. In short, to map the potential that a municipality can have.” According to František Vašek, these are steps that everyone can take immediately. And it is also a way to move closer to the much-discussed carbon neutrality recently.