Magliano Alpi became the first municipal in Italy to create a renewable energy community (REC) after the introduction of new regulations and incentives in the final half of last year. The country is preparing for a wave of renewable energy communities (RECs) to meet the citizens’ energy demands and industries. However, the challenge is the program depends on public funds to develop fully and shape up in the country. Marvo Bailo, the mayor of Magliano Alpi, stated that they had connected seven customers to the REC, three of which are public apartments. He explained that they plan on connecting the 2200 citizens of this municipality to one transformer. The challenge in the implementation of this plan is that the users might register with different substations creating confusion over the next point that they can develop a substation. Nevertheless, the developers stated they had pinned 13 points where they can establish substations to serve the residents with much ease.
Moreover, Magliano Alpi is partnering with neighboring towns in the north of Piedmont. The head of the REC implementation committee, Sergio Olivero, explained that they would be developing the five municipalities as segregate units before linking them to form citizen energy communities (CEC) courtesy of the directives laid out in the new regulations. Local leaders think it would be best to develop renewable energy communities (RECs) in the entire country. Olivero pointed out that the regulation stipulated in the RED II Directive creates advantageous loopholes that the energy sector can utilize to supply renewable energy to communities in controllable units. Additionally, this project brings together the energy sector’s active stakeholders in the public and the private sphere.
Olivero emphasized that the partnership between the two creates numerous opportunities that can streamline more projects and the flow of revenue in the economy efficiently. He added that last year was a redefining season for the country, calling for the intervention of the government to support the citizens. Eventually, the government is indirectly utilizing the Ministry of Economic Development through the subsidies and incentives it has planned for these projects to invigorate the economy to its standard levels if not beating the profit margins of last year. Meanwhile, the government has allocated €100000 to municipalities with less than 5000 members, which will be available for the next three years when the projects become operational. Bailo and Olivero unveiled this REC, explaining that they are taking the energy transition period to polish the Italian economy that suffered heavily from the pandemic.
