From single-family homes and multi-family dwellings to companies and districts – prosuming is a guiding principle for everyone in the energy transition. But not everyone is in a position to help shape the climate-neutral energy world of tomorrow. In the future, energy sharing will provide more opportunities to participate in and benefit from the deployment of renewable sources of energy, creating a win-win situation. It is expected to get a major boost from the EU’s recent electricity market reform. At EM-Power Europe, the international exhibition for energy management and integrated energy solutions, visitors have the opportunity to learn more about the latest trends, solutions and business models. The exhibition is rounded off by a varied program of presentations and discussions at the EM-Power Europe Conference and The smarter E Forum. EM-Power Europe is part of The smarter E Europe, Europe’s largest alliance of exhibitions for the energy industry, and will take place in Munich from June 19–21, 2024, alongside Intersolar Europe, ees Europe and Power2Drive Europe.
There are already ways for tenants, homeowners and companies that can’t generate their own electricity to participate in solar or wind farms through bonds or citizen energy communities. However, they cannot use the electricity generated by these farms for themselves as prosumers. Energy sharing fills the gap between self-consumption and citizen energy communities. The recent EU reform facilitates the participation in the generation and consumption of electricity. To this end, the EU Electricity Market Directive has defined the role of an “active consumer” as someone who contributes to the energy transition through their activities, initiatives and decisions. They can form communities with other active consumers and drive developments towards a renewable 24/7 energy supply by investing in renewable energy systems.
Not only prosumers of the new kind – i.e. “active consumers” according to the Electricity Market Directive – benefit from these new opportunities. Energy sharing will lead to a much more dynamic deployment of renewable energy systems. This will also reduce the burden on distribution grid operators, as the increased amount of electricity generated from renewables is distributed and consumed directly on site. This will significantly reduce the amount of grid expansion required for the energy transition.
In addition to the legal and regulatory framework conditions, energy sharing has a lot of technical requirements. The good news is that the required technologies are already available on the market today. The bad news is that a lot of countries are still in the early stages of implementing them. These technologies include smart meters and functioning real-time data communication between energy sharing players, other energy market participants and grid operators. Germany in particular is lagging behind in digitalization compared to other countries.
“Excessive complexity and bureaucracy are death traps for innovation in Germany,” explains Robert Busch, CEO of the German Association of Energy Market Innovators (bne). This is why, together with its member companies, the association has developed a simple concept for energy sharing, which is limited to a district and the low-voltage and medium-voltage grid levels. Households, companies and public institutions can play an active role in sharing electricity from renewable sources at a local level via the public grid. For example, a supermarket with a large roof-mounted photovoltaic system could supply solar power to neighboring EV charging stations, or residents of a district could get together to power a large heat pump that supplies heat using self-generated photovoltaic electricity.
From June 19–21, 2024, EM-Power Europe in Munich offers its trade visitors insights into tomorrow’s distribution grids that will also allow them to share their energy. Information on suitable solutions, technologies and business models will be available both in the exhibition halls and at The smarter E Forum. EM-Power Europe will be accompanied by the EM-Power Europe Conference, providing the perfect opportunity for a deep dive into future issues and discussions with international experts. As part of this, the conference session Energy Communities and Smart Energy Sharing on June 19 will offer insights into energy communities, citizen participation schemes and local decarbonization projects that contribute to grid safety and customer protection.
EM-Power Europe, and the parallel events Intersolar Europe, ees Europe, and Power2Drive Europe, will take place from June 19–21, 2024 as part of the innovation hub The smarter E Europe, Europe’s largest alliance of exhibitions for the energy industry, at Messe München.