Citizen Energy Communities as a Vehicle for a Just Energy Transition in the EU – Challenges for the Transposition

With the “Clean Energy Package for All Europeans” (CEP) the EU legislator envisions consumers to “take ownership of the energy transition and to benefit from new technologies”. While this promises an empowered role of consumers, not all consumers will be able to participate as “owners of the energy transition” and subsequently suffer from being in a disadvantageous position in the market. This essentially bears the risk of an unjust energy transition. The CEP foresees “community energy”, i.e. “citizen energy communities” (CEC), to facilitate “certain groups of household customers to participate in the electricity markets, who otherwise might not have been able to do so.” This would imply that CEC not only fulfil an empowering function for consumers to participate in the market, but also a protective function, in particular for vulnerable customers. However, this protective element is not enshrined in the definition of CEC, but is left at the discretion of the Member States. This article explores the role and need of CEC not only as empowering measure, but especially as a vehicle for a just energy transition in the EU and identifies minimum legal requirements for CEC to sufficiently fulfil this function