Energy communities. A new energy policy at territorial scale

The European Union is leading the global fight against climate change, and has made it one of its top priority. The EU committed itself to reducing its overall emissions to at least 20 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and at 40% by 2030. Every country and territory should promote a sustainable energy plan, and energy communities play a key role in the achievement of the energy and climate targets. The Council of European Energy Regulators defines “local energy community” as a cooperative/partnership/non-profit organization of final customers, which can involve different stakeholders such as municipalities, local societies, public and private companies. This choice aims at an energy independence that guarantees the energy security with a low environment impact and affordable energy costs. In particular, objectives of energy communities are to achieve sustainable development, energy efficiency and low emissions through: the exploitation of renewable sources, the implementation of energy networks and grids towards more smart, flexible and resilient configurations; a user’s mix with the optimization of energy consumptions variability and load peaks in the networks; the diversification of energy supply sources; the improvement of energy cost-effectiveness thanks to technological innovations. The aim of this work is to introduce a procedure useful to quantify the energy sustainable development of future local energy communities in Italy with the use of various indicators. The case study is Pinerolo area, a vast territory with 47 municipalities and more than 70 companies in the Piedmont Region. The results show that with the creation of new energy communities, it will be possible to improve the sustainability, security, affordability and equity of energy systems.