a. The different prosumer concepts in the Winter Package
The Winter Package contains four main concepts related to prosumption. The first two terms are found in the proposed electricity directive.(1) Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on common rules for the internal market in electricity COM(2016) 864 final/2. First, the active customer is defined in article 2(6) of the proposed electricity directive as ‘a customer or a group of jointly acting customers who consume, store or sell electricity generated on their premises, including through aggregators, or participate in demand response or energy efficiency schemes provided that these activities do not constitute their primary commercial or professional activity’. Article 15 of the same directive clarifies the measures that Member States should take to ensure fair grid access for active customers.
Second, article 2(7) of the proposed electricity directive addresses local energy communities, which are defined as ‘an association, a cooperative, a partnership, a non-profit organisation or other legal entity which is effectively controlled by local shareholders or members, generally value rather than profit-driven, involved in distributed generation and in performing activities of a distribution system operator, supplier or aggregator at local level, including across borders’. Article 16 of the directive provides outlines for Member States for the design of a national regulatory framework for local energy communities.
The proposed renewable energy directive contains two additional terms.(2) Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources 2017 COM(2016) 767 final/2. Article 2(aa) of the proposed renewable energy directive defines the renewable self-consumer as ‘an active customer as defined in the [proposed electricity directive] who consumes and may store and sell renewable electricity which is generated within his or its premises, including a multi-apartment block, a commercial or shared services site or a closed distribution system, provided that, for non-household renewable self-consumers, those activities do not constitute their primary commercial or professional activity’. Article 21 stresses that renewable self-consumers maintain their rights as consumers and that they should receive fair conditions when interacting with the market.
Finally, the renewable energy community is defined in article 22 of the proposed renewable energy directive as ‘an SME or a not-for-profit organisation, the shareholders or members of which cooperate in the generation, distribution, storage or supply of energy from renewable sources’. In addition, the renewable energy community has to meet four out of five criteria relating to corporate governance and limits on installed capacity.(3) Art 21§1(a) to (e) ibid.