Energy communities

Six electricity suppliers are now permitted

Anyone interested in an energy community can obtain free advice from the Upper Austrian Energy Saving Association.(Bild: Energie AG)

In no other federal state are there more energy communities than in Upper Austria. And from today, both suppliers and consumers are allowed to be members of more than one of the 99 associations, and for good reason. Because you should be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

More than 5000 Upper Austrians are members of an energy community - either as producers, consumers or both. Until now, it was only possible to be a member of one association, but now it is possible to be a member of five energy communities.

Problems with implementation
"The law should have provided for this three years ago, but the technical implementation was not possible so quickly," explains Wolfgang Denk from Netz OÖ, the largest electricity grid operator above the Enns. The electricity of the associations, which are not allowed to operate for profit, also runs through their lines. In the background, an enormous amount of computing work is carried out via the EDA (Energy Data Exchange) platform - this is where it is calculated who gets how much energy from where or who feeds in how much and where. "The customer doesn't notice any of this," says Denk.

Equipped for supply bottlenecks
The energy communities cannot be completely independent, and every electricity customer should have a commercial supplier in case there is a shortage of electricity in the community. That's why there are now up to six possible suppliers.

The advantage of the communities: Locally generated electricity is usually sold and purchased cheaply, and there are discounts of up to two thirds on grid fees. However, the energy price brake does not apply to this form of electricity purchase.