The Citizens Energy Communities

Thursday, June 20, 2019

"The energy-wise self-sufficient community of the future and positive energy buildings are the objectives of our work, but in order for this to happen, local communities, architects and energy experts need to understand form, function and performance in context,” states Paolo Quaini, Director of the Energy Services and Environmental Division of Edison SPA. The first, fundamental step is to recognise that the specific skills of each individual are not enough to be able to give a complete answer to the current needs of our citizens and their evolution. We need to create a network, share skills and create an integrated project. We, at Edison, are ready to offer our resources and acquired knowhow for the benefit of a thought process that must, necessarily, be collective, enhancing all the knowledge and skills involved, with the aim of finding a solution that has a medium to long-term perspective.

European legislation is moving towards a greater emphasis on distributed generation rather than centralised production, but what was once only a possible benefit for industrial contexts can now become a reality for entire areas and communities of citizens. These are the Citizens Energy Communities. Yet again, there is no lack of technology: renewable sources and/or those with low environmental impact, accumulation systems, tools to monitor and control consumption, intelligent networks, consumption aggregation solutions and DSM, but, yet again, a strong, political will is required and regulatory tools able to implement solutions that would be successful in terms of use of territorial resources, optimisation of consumption and growth of the economy and local industries.