What Is Community Energy and What Are Its Benefits

Community energy is a modern trend that has been rapidly gaining importance in recent years. It allows people, municipalities, companies or apartment buildings to generate their own electricity and share it among community members. A typical example is sharing energy from photovoltaic power plants between households, municipal buildings or companies.

Until recently, electricity generation was mostly centralised — energy was produced by several large power plants and then distributed to consumers. Today, however, the energy sector is gradually becoming decentralised. Practically anyone with their own energy source, such as a solar power plant, can now participate in electricity generation.

If you have your own electricity production source, you can consume part of the energy yourself. This brings greater energy independence as well as savings on electricity costs. However, situations often occur where you generate more energy than you are able to consume at your own consumption point. These surpluses are then fed into the distribution grid. In the past, surplus energy could simply be sold, but today buyback conditions are less favourable and in some cases additional costs may even be associated with energy overflows.

This is exactly why the possibility of energy sharing is emerging — for example with family members, neighbours, municipal buildings or other members of an energy community. Generated electricity can thus be efficiently used where it is currently needed.

There are currently several forms of electricity sharing in the Czech Republic. The simplest option is the so-called active customer, where energy is shared between several consumption points. Another option is an energy community, which enables electricity sharing within a broader community, for example between municipalities, companies or groups of households. Another specific form is energy sharing within an apartment building, where individual apartments and common areas can use jointly generated energy within a single building.

If you are unsure about any part of the process, need more information or would appreciate help with setup, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to explain everything and help you find a solution that makes sense for your specific situation.