Workshop “Energy Communities, energy in citizens’ hands”

What: Workshop “Energy Communities, energy in citizens’ hands”

Where: Athens, Greece

When: 18th April 2019

The Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS-NTUA) in collaboration with ELECTRA Energy cooperative organized a workshop “Energy Communities, energy in citizens’ hands”.

Local energy communities are tools for the transition to a more democratic and decentralized energy system that focuses on the action of citizens, local and regional authorities as well as their synergy and partnership toward the sustainable degrowth. The Energy Communities model, although quite widespread in northern Europe, is quite unknown in Greece, with few successful initiatives mainly emerged in recent years. This arises several questions such us: What are the best models?, What are the benefits that energy communities provide?, What is the legislation framework? among others.

The aim of the workshop was to discuss these questions and to highlight sustainable models for the establishment of Energy Communities in Greece, taking into consideration the current legislation and regulation framework in collaboration with relevant experience from existing initiatives.

The event brought together relevant stakeholders from different sectors. The first part of the workshop focused on the new legislative framework with presenters from The Ministry of Energy, the National Distribution System Operator (HEDNO) and the Depository Bank of Greece. The second part was dedicated to social innovation and community energy best practices, methods and tools.

More than 150 people participated at the workshop. Municipality of Rafina in collaboration with ICCS created a COMPILE’s corner within the event venue where participants had the chance to be informed regarding the project’s scopes and visions. It also supported knowledge exchange of the projects through ICCS’ presentation.