I-NERGY supporting development of energy communities
ZEZ (or Zelena energetska zadruga) is an energy cooperative from Croatia. We are devoted to supporting citizens and local communities to switch to the center of clean energy transition in our country and across borders.
In Croatia there are around 1.500 rooftop solar systems today (approx. 80 MW), and total installed solar capacity (including utility scale) covers less than 1% of total electricity demand (approx. 150 MW).
Our vision for local communities in Croatia is achieving 100.000 solar rooftops by the year 2030, operating in self-consumption and energy sharing mode. Utilisation of solar energy through local energy communities could have an immediate and lasting impact on our society: creating new jobs, strengthening local economy, reducing dependency on energy imports, and increasing the standard of living for all citizens.
ZEZ is setting up a pilot within the I-NERGY H2020 project to explore possibilities for peer-to-peer energy sharing in energy communities. The cooperative in mobilising 100 individual household prosumers to join a virtual energy community – since energy communities as a concept has been recently adopted in the Croatian regulatory framework and offers limited opportunities for operation.
One of the key objectives of the pilot is to utilise AI services developed by the project technical partners to build a viable business model. Furthermore, ZEZ is engaging various stakeholders such as the distribution system operator (DSO), energy regulatory agency, electricity suppliers, faculty members and market participants to help improve the existing regulatory framework.