Workshop in Slovakia: REC4EU and Green Deal for buildings

Energy communities in Slovakia

Energy communities in Slovakia was the topic of the joint workshop of the REC4EU and Green Deal for buildings projects, organized by the Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency (SIEA) on 16/06/2023 in the premises of SIEA. The aim of the workshop was the presentation of the SWOT analysis of the REC4EU project and thematic lectures in which the technical, regulatory, economic and social aspects of energy communities were discussed.

Topics of individual presentations:

• New decree on electricity market rules
• Technical side and functioning models of energy communities
• Financing of energy communities – experience from Europe
• Exploiting economy of scale in energy communities

The meeting was opened by Stanislav Laktiš, project manager of SIEA, who presented the REC4EU program, the benefits of energy communities and explained the difference in definition between an energy community and a community. He also presented the main challenges and steps for the development of energy communities in Slovakia.

The regulatory aspect was addressed by Michal Hudec from the Office for the Regulatory Office for Network Industries, who presented in more detail the new decree on the rules of the electricity market, which came into effect on July 1, 2023.

Pavel Šimon from the University of Žilina presented the technical side and the functioning model of energy communities and looked at prices and fees from an optimistic, realistic and pessimistic scenario. 

Experiences from Europe on the financing of energy communities were shared by Chris Vrettos from REScoop Belgium. He pointed to various types of financing mechanisms, such as crowd investment, public-private partnership, but also public financing tracker, which aims to inform about the possibility of support programs for energy communities at national level.

Petra Čakovská from the Consumer Protection Society introduced the topic of using economy of scale in energy communities, where she presented the experience of joint purchase of photovoltaic and heat pumps.

The stakeholder meeting, which was also available online, was attended by representatives of

• the Government Office of the Slovak Republic,
• the Municipality of Bratislava,
• the Bratislava-Petržalka district,
• the Bratislava self-governing region,
• Friends of the Earth,
• the Technical University of Košice/Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava,
• the Slovak Association of Photovoltaic Industry and RES,
• banking institutions,
• SMEs and
• other relevant stakeholders.

Finally, Stanislav Laktiš presented a draft of SWOT analysis of the REC4EU project. The comments and suggestions will be reflected in the final version of the SWOT analysis.