Condos allowed to produce their own energy

The Portuguese government is reviewing the energy auto-consumption and self-sufficiency legislation and is preparing to encourage the creation of “energy communities”. This “communities” will be possible through the introduction of several bills to allow energy production by condominia and shared energy consumption by neighbourhoods and other groups.

In reality, condos will be allowed to produce energy in common areas of their buildings, contrarily to what the current legislation foresees:  While according to the current legislation one or more residents can adhere to an auto-consumption regime by installing solar panels in the balconies, they could not instal them in common areas for shared consumption.

In a statement to Jornal de Negócios, Minister João Matos Fernandes said that “this alteration aims at giving a strong impulse to the distributed energy production, in particular to local energy production resorting to solar energy.”

The revision currently taking place will also clarify energy consumption regimes. “The bill will from now on exclusively contemplate own consumption, introducing concepts such auto-consumption and shared consumption in communities”, while small units of production, so far exclusively available to the grid, will now be integrated into another bill.

It will also be possible to sell the surplus of production to the grid through a connection point, which will require an authorisation of the Directorate-General of Energy and Geology with an extra cost to it. You will also need a license from this institution if you have an installation with power energy superior to 1500 Watts.