New helping circle: starting an energy community

Hello @reeflings! Tonight’s board meeting decided to ask you all if there are 2-3 volunteers willing to join a new helping circle with the purpose to start a renewable energy community (REC).

  • Mandate: create a detailed proposal to start a REC, including statutes and business model. The plenary should be put in a position to decide to incorporate.

  • Operations: meet the Facilitateurs Partage et Communatutés d’Énergie and gain the necessary information. Work as a helping circle to assemble a proposal and present it to the plenary. Coordinate with @RichardB as he seeks input from the notary.

  • Timeline: do this from now to mid-November approximately.

I am interested in joining this helping circle myself. Any takers?

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If you need an extra pair of hands or an extra brain, i can help.

But if there are enough other people joining the HC or you are fine doing it by yourself, then i’ll stay out.

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i’m interested in the computational aspect of the project. software to register data and payments. i dont know if that is too early.

i also have a contact in the Brussels commune that just started working on this .

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Definitely too early. The deliverable here is a more grounded business plan and, ideally, a draft statute. But good to know.

Also good to know!

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I can help out too. I have the time for research. Just tell me more in detail what you need.

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Hi @Sterre @alberto , and any other reeflings who still want to join this helping circle (maybe max one extra person)

  • i checked with Alberto: he will join this helping circle from December onwards, but if he can join for a meeting before, he will

  • i’ve taken the liberty - for our first meeting - to take the lead and create an agenda. After this first meeting, it will be the selected coordinator taking this up…Feel free to add items to the agenda.
    The agenda can be found under The Reef shared folder/Team Finance / Energy Community

  • As we are all joining for the weekend getaway, i thought maybe we can meetup there, if we feel like it. If it wouldn’t work out, we’ll plan a meeting in the week after…What do you think?

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All good for me, Els. Any literature/research I can already read through in order to prepare? @alberto @els

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@Sterre :

  • just the first post of this topic.
  • And maybe - if you’re interested - a post that made it all start: A "solar and frugal" Reef?. → read the “Solar Reef” - part
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Some additional reading if you have time but not mandatory before our first meeting

Info of L’ibge (in dutch or french):

Maybe this post as well from Richard: Primes - Premies - Public grants - #6 by RichardB (but maybe also to be determined if this is in scope for this helping circle)

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Adding a link to the post on the possibility to get a grant for ease of reference: European Energy Communities Facility - apply for funding

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Hi @Sterre @alberto ,

Today i went through the info on the site of l’IBGE and here some things i want to share:

Sharing energy within a building vs Energy community

  • they make a distinction between

    • sharing energy between 2 people/2 buildings (peer-to-peer sharing)

    • sharing energy within a building

    • sharing energy with more than 2 people/between more than 2 buildings. In this case we speak about an energy community

  • They state that certain copropriétés consist of more than one building, but if those buildings have one space with all the electricity counters, they can be considered being ‘one building’. This is the case for us. In that case they say you don’t need to constitute an energy community (but if understand well, you can if you want to).

Sharing electricity within a building,

  • doesn’t require the setting up/ existance of a legal structure (but you can if you want). In this case you only need to

    • define the sharing project: define the price of the electricity + sharing method of the volume of the shared electricity

    • install the intelligent counters (part of the construction of the buildings)

    • sign the sharing agreement: the producer signs an agreement with every consumer

    • register the sharing project with Sibelga

  • i guess here we won’t be able to apply for the funding of the European Energy Communities Facility

Sharing electricity with an energy community

  • you have different types of energy communities

    • the local energycommunity

    • the renewable energy community

    • the energy community of citizens

  • They distinguish themselves by

    • the type of consumer that are allowed

    • the property conditions of the producing installations

    • the type of energy that is being shared

  • You have certain steps that need to be undertaken to establish the energy community, and you have steps to undertake to regulate the sharing within the energy community

  • Steps to establish the energy community:

    • mobilize participants (if we keep it to the reef, i guess ‘done’)

    • choosing the type of legal structure: asbl or cooperation

    • write statutes

    • permit request with Brugel

    • set up the legal structure

    • tax obligation (no tax obligation is production is inferior than10 kVA)

  • Steps to share the energy within the community

    • define the geographical scope of the sharing (will determine the network costs)

    • define the economic model of sharing

    • define the sharing method

    • install the intelligent counters (part of the construction of the buildings)

    • sign the agreement for sharing

    • register the sharing with Sibelga

  • I wonder if we will make much chance in receiving the funding if we keep the energy community to The Reef only (as inclusion, integrating the community is an important factor)

So I guess one of the first things we will need to do decide as a group: do we really want to establish an energy community or not?

sources:

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Very interesting. Indeed, it aligns with my own reading this summer.

I guess we start from the baseline of within-Reef energy sharing. That is our default. Then, we consider if it makes sense to try something more sophisticated.

hi @Sterre @alberto

The weekend was too short to spend time together, let alone talk about energy community stuff.

After some reflection, i don’t think wet need to meet-up beforehand, but first see the ibge energy community facilitator and after that have a meeting to discuss, create a common understanding- and define the next steps. Ok for you? If so, I’ll contact them to get this going…

I’ve started a list of questions to ask to him/her: : Team Finance/Energy Community/Questions for the ibge energy community facilitator, feel free to complete, even if you cannot make it.

@RichardB : if you would have specific questions needing to be answered from the notary, please include them as well.

Agreed. Please move forward, and I’ll reconnect after the break.

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@Sterre @alberto

Quick heads up about l’ibge: I filled in a request to have a meeting with them. We got a confirmation mail (proton mailbox) in which it is said they would contact us within 3 working days. The 3 working days have passed so I guess they will contact us somewhere next week.

I’ve been through all/most relevant information on their website. If they don’t contact us next week, I think we can go ahead with the part ‘define the sharing method’ which we need to define in any case and doesn’t need extra input from them (in my opinion).

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I discovered there is already quite a big energy community in our future neighbourhood.

Tour&Taxis energy: set up by a real estate developer with - at this point - 120 members

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Hi @alberto @Sterre

The energy facilitator didn’t come back to us this week, and my feeling is this might take some time before we get a chance to speak to him/her. I’ve send another mail on friday to see if they could get us an estimation of when this meeting could take place.

I personally would move forward, as things are not so busy in The Reef, so I would suggest to have a first meeting amongst us.

I’ve made a document summarizing a bit the info I found back: Login – Nextcloud

Here is a poll for our first meeting:

  • Wednesday 3/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Wednesday 3/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Thursday 4/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Thursday 4/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Friday 5/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Friday 5/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Monday 8/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Monday 8/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Tuesday 9/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Tuesday 9/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Thursday 11/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Thursday 11/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Monday 15/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Monday 15/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Wednesday 17/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Wednesday 17/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • Friday 19/12 19:00 - 20:30
  • Friday 19/12 20:00 - 21:30
  • I can’t make any of these moments
  • I prefer to wait till after the meeting with the energy facilitator
0 voters

Thanks, Els

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@Sterre @alberto Monday 8/12 from 20:00-21:30 it is, online.

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Thanks for organizing, Els. I really appreciate your reliability and commitment.

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