Zap! Electricity sharing begins in Czechia

After successfully hosting the largest community energy conference – the European Energy Communities Forum 2024 – Czechia has crossed another exciting milestone. In early September, electricity sharing became a reality, with pioneering projects testing the waters. We’re watching closely, eager to channel this newfound know-how into the next phases of the COMMENCE project – Community Energy in Central Europe.

For a long time, community energy in Czechia was overlooked, but since 2022, progress has accelerated with the founding of the Community Energy Union (UKEN) by Frank Bold. This coalition of cities, municipalities, businesses, and NGOs has been driving change.

Since the beginning of 2024, Czech law recognizes community energy, but practical implementation required the launch of the Electroenergy Data Center to manage shared electricity data.

In September 2024, the first projects initiated electricity sharing. One of these is the municipality of Brumovice in South Moravia, with which we collaborate. Although small at first, Brumovice plans to expand electricity sharing to citizens by early 2025, with interest from both homes and businesses.

At Frank Bold, we‘re eager to use this experience to develop national guidelines for the COMMENCE project. As the European Energy Communities Forum demonstrated, although still in its early stages, Czechia’s approach to community energy can inspire countries across Europe. However, we are equally looking forward to the guidelines that SAPI in Slovakia, Friends of the Earth Hungary, and WiseEuropa in Poland will provide.

This autumn and winter, we’re looking forward to workshops with our COMMENCE partners. The first one will take place in Slovakia on September 18, 2024, followed by Hungary on October 16, 2024, and we’ll be delighted to host one in Czechia on December 3, 2024.