RFAs: Support Services for Energy Communities

Scopes

• Proposed actions should focus on establishing or expanding support services aimed at facilitating the set-up of new energy communities and the growth of existing ones.
• The entity (or entities) in charge of delivering the support services should be clearly identified and justified. The support services can be provided by relevant local actors such as local or regional governments, energy agencies or umbrella energy community organisations (e.g. federations, associations of energy cooperatives). Proposals involving the mutualisation or sharing of services by umbrella energy community organisations or groupings of energy communities are encouraged.
• Services should focus on supporting renewable energy communities (RECs) according to the revised Renewable Energy Directive ((EU) 2018/2001)57 and/or citizen energy communities (CECs) according to the Directive on common rules for the internal electricity market ((EU) 2019/944)58. Proposals should indicate which types of energy communities are targeted.
• The services delivered to energy community projects must involve direct technical support with personalised advice through the different phases of project development (e.g. access to finance, business model definition support, legal advice, energy commercialisation, assistance for the operational phase). Services could also aim at scaling-up and professionalising energy communities using approaches such as peerto-peer support and twinning programmes among communities with different levels of experience.
• Proposals should specify the type of support provided and the way in which it will be implemented including staffing and communication channels. A constant physical presence is not mandatory (as support can also be provided in other settings such as temporary counters or regular meetings with project promoters). Approaches including mainly the provision of generic information and advice, access to guidance materials, and/or focusing on on-line platforms and tools without or with limited direct human interaction are not considered relevant to the scope of this topic.
• The service design is to be detailed and justified considering the specific local/regional challenges to be addressed. Some of those obstacles may be linked to energy community project development (e.g. cooperation with Distribution System Operators), but proposals can also aim at tackling other local challenges (e.g. rural depopulation, the need to speed up renovations, tackling energy vulnerability, facilitating cooperation between citizens and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).

Funding Information

• The indicative available call budget is EUR 91 400 000
• Topic Budget: EUR 7 000 000

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
    • non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the LIFE Programme
  • the coordinator must be established in an eligible country.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Applicants which are subject to an EU exclusion decision or in one of the following exclusion situations that bar them from receiving EU funding can NOT participate:
  • bankruptcy, winding up, affairs administered by the courts, arrangement with creditors, suspended business activities or other similar procedures (including procedures for persons with unlimited liability for the applicant’s debts)
  • in breach of social security or tax obligations (including if done by persons with unlimited liability for the applicant’s debts)
  • guilty of grave professional misconduct (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
  • committed fraud, corruption, links to a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorism-related crimes (including terrorism financing), child labour or human trafficking (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
  • shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations under an EU procurement contract, grant agreement, prize, expert contract, or similar (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
  • guilty of irregularities within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Regulation No 2988/95 (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
  • created under a different jurisdiction with the intent to circumvent fiscal, social or other legal obligations in the country of origin or created another entity with this purpose (including if done by persons having powers of representation, decision-making or control, beneficial owners or persons who are essential for the award/implementation of the grant)
  • intentionally and without proper justification resisted an investigation, check or audit carried out by an EU authorising officer (or their representative or auditor), OLAF, the EPPO, or the European Court of Auditors.
• Applicants will also be rejected if it turns out that:
  • during the award procedure they misrepresented information required as a condition for participating or failed to supply that information
  • they were previously involved in the preparation of the call and this entails a distortion of competition that cannot be remedied otherwise (conflict of interest).

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