The Ministry of Energy will finalize, as soon as possible, a draft law on energy communities, through which the roofs of apartment buildings can become a surface on which green electricity can be produced, announced the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.
“We need a law on energy communities through which this unused resource, the roofs of apartment buildings in Bucharest, in the big cities, all over Romania, can become a surface on which we can produce green electricity. To get there, we have had working group meetings, but we are finalizing a draft of legislation for energy communities as soon as possible. Following the adoption of this project, the surplus energy that is injected into the network and that brings income will be able to be shared between the tenants of a building. At this moment, the extra income practically goes to the tenants’ association, as is the case with this building in Sector 6. If we look around, we really see the potential that the buildings in Bucharest have to have such photovoltaic panel systems, plus battery storage, and I want to encourage this,” said the minister, during a visit to a new PPC project, according to Agerpres.
He emphasized that the PPC project in sector 6 is a pilot one and there consumption and production data will be monitored to provide support in defining the legislative framework for energy communities.
In turn, the director of the supply companies in the PPC group, Ionuț Dună, stated that it is a pilot program, the goal being to collect as much data as possible, to understand exactly how energy is consumed, when this energy is needed and, based on this data, subsequent programs that will support such initiatives “to be as applicable and as applied to everyday reality as possible”.
PPC Energie has put into operation on a block of flats in sector 6 in Bucharest an integrated solution for electricity production with photovoltaic panels and battery storage, in order to test, within a pilot project carried out together with the Ministry of Energy, the operation under real conditions of such an installation in a type of urban community frequently found in Romania.
The installation commissioned by PPC Energie includes photovoltaic panels with a total capacity of approximately 10 kWp and batteries with a storage capacity of 5 kWh. It was located on the roof of a ten-story building in the Drumul Taberei area where smart meters are operational for both common areas and at apartment level. The smart meters targeting common areas were connected to the photovoltaic installation’s inverter.
The estimated annual production of the 24 photovoltaic panels of 410Wp each is approximately 12 MWh/year. The energy will be used to light the common areas of one of the apartment building’s staircases and operate the elevator.
“A precondition for the development of an energy community is smart metering. The smart meters installed in the apartment building targeted by the pilot project were installed by the distribution operator operating in the Bucharest area, according to an implementation calendar approved by the Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE). PPC Energie, as a provider of advanced energy solutions, installed photovoltaic solutions with a total capacity of almost 3,200 kW for almost 900 residential customers, as an AFM authorized installer, during the period 2018-2023,” the company said in a statement.