Energy: ENEA and Legacoop sign agreement to encourage development of energy communities in a cooperative form

An agreement on issues relating to renewable energy sources, collective self-consumption and renewable energy communities (CER) strenghtens the collaboration between Legacoop and ENEA on the twin transition.

The partnership is part of a previous Memorandum of Understanding for the dissemination of programs and projects between ENEA and the cooperatives belonging to Legacoop, regarding digital transition, energy efficiency and circular and sustainable economy.

 “With this agreement, ENEA and Legacoop intend to work together on the creation of an experimental campaign to evaluate and optimize the performance of tools and products made available by ENEA in the most advanced energy cooperatives”, pointed out Giorgio Graditi, General Director of ENEA. “These are specific softwares – he said – that allow to assess the technical-economic feasibility of an energy community, the use of real-time data to analyse energy production and consumption scenarios, monitor communities and evaluate performance results, as well as the use of the DLT (Distributed Ledger Technologies) to secure transactions among users and enable local economies".

 “Legacoop – pointed out Simone Gamberini, President of Legacoop - has always made its knowledge on the cooperative model available to the country. We believe that a collaborative/cooperative platform could be the most suitable solution for managing CERs and the country's energy transition. Globally, and also in Italy, there are many successful experiences of energy cooperatives. We believe that both parties can benefit from this collaboration, which can be considered key to promote technological transfer, helping the country adopt a systematic approach".

The project idea was developed recently and was the subject of in-depth analysis during the K.ey fair in Rimini. This initiative stems from a common interest in the development of solutions and tools to support CERs for mutual purposes and valorises the experiences of cooperative CERs, starting from Part-Energy, the first energy community in an officially cooperative form recognized by the GSE.

The goal is to involve local entities by making ENEA technologies and experience available. The first studies will be conducted using tools and platforms developed by the Cross Technologies laboratory for urban and industrial districts and then applied in an area of industrial and tourist interest in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region; subsequently they can be extended to the national territory and to all the energy cooperatives involved.