Energy communities have become a promising tool for a just energy transition - cutting bills, building resilience, and giving citizens real ownership of their energy. The session hosted by the European Office of the Covenant of Mayors and the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH) during the European Sustainable Energy Week 2026 explored a critical question: how can vulnerable households be brought into energy communities as full participants and beneficiaries?
Speakers from the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, and local initiatives in Athens (Greece), Lumiar (Portugal), and Mechelen (Belgium) shared policy perspectives and good practices.
Policy framework and financing
Achille Hannoset, Policy and Legal Officer at DG Energy, outlined the EU framework for energy communities, explaining that energy sharing is now established as a right under the Electricity Market Directive, with a transposition deadline of 17 July 2026. The accompanying EU Recommendation on Energy Communities further urges Member States to ensure that, on average, at least 10% of locally shared energy benefits vulnerable consumers.
This framework is completed by the Clean Energy Package (CEP), which defines two types of energy communities: Citizen Energy Communities (CEC) in Directive (EU) 2019/944 and Renewable Energy Communities (REC) in Directive (EU) 2018/2001. The REC definition specifically provides an enabling environment for renewable energy projects and aims to include low-income households.
The Recommendation and Action Plan on Energy Communities acknowledge the significant potential of these initiatives to boost renewable energy production, reduce emissions, and lower energy bills for citizens. To realise this potential, the plan sets out measures covering enabling frameworks, access to funding, social inclusiveness, and digitalisation. These measures are supplemented by a dedicated staff working document that outlines good practices to guide implementation across Member States.
Depending on the stage, different opportunities are available to support energy communities at EU level, such as the Citizen Energy Advisory Hub (technical assistance) and the European Energy Communities Facility (grant support). As part of the Homegrown Energy Engagement Action, a package was developed to bring all of them together.
Corina Murafa, rapporteur at the European Economic and Social Committee, presented the Committee's opinion on the Citizens Energy Package. She welcomed the package's first official acknowledgement that energy community membership can save households between €440 and €1,000 per year. However, she cautioned that much of the package relies on recommendations rather than binding law, and stressed that the link between energy communities and energy poverty is not automatic: it requires intentional design and genuine financial incentives to translate into a positive business case for vulnerable households.
Local innovations and good practices
Athens' Energy Poverty Alleviation Office
Avgi Gonou presented the work of Athens' Energy Poverty Alleviation Office, set up in 2024. The city has a target of reducing energy poverty to 3% by 2030. Concrete measures include the elimination of municipal taxes on electricity bills for vulnerable households, working with different stakeholders to offer sponsorship and discounts for measures.
The Gender4Power programme (EU-funded via LIFE/CINEA) is supporting women living alone or as single head of household to join a local energy community with free membership and free electricity for 22 years, allocated through a public lottery.
Lumiar: Portugal's first citizen-led energy community
Ricardo Mexia, President of the Lumiar Parish Council, a district in Lisbon, shared the story of the Telheiras neighbourhood's community-led energy community, the first of its kind in Portugal. Born from a citizen brainstorming session in 2021 and supported by the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub for technical assistance, the project brought together citizens, the local authority, academic partners, and a national cooperative. Solar panels were installed on the rooftops of local government buildings, with a built-in solidarity mechanism: of the initial 17 members, 3 were social participants whose share of the investment was covered jointly by the local authority and the other members.
The community now counts 70 members, with plans to grow to 240 while maintaining a 10% share of social participants. Key lessons included navigating regulatory hurdles and recognising the importance of full, equal membership rights for social participants from the outset. A practical guide was published by the project to help the replication.
Lumiar Energy Community
Mechelen: building energy communities into social housing
Steven Laurijssen, project coordinator at Klimaan, presented their project in Mechelen: solar panels installed across on social housing units rooftops developed with the City of Mechelen and the local social housing company, also through the SocialNRG project. The project's success rests on local ambassadors - trusted residents who act as a bridge between Klimaan and tenants.
The neighbourhood is used as a living lab for further innovation, including energy sharing tools, EV charging and battery storage, through the U2DEMO project. The results are also promoted through the Fair Energy Transition for All project, to exchange knowledge and share best practices with others.
Klimaan Energy Community
Key challenges and recommendations
Designing for inclusion from the start is the decisive factor in whether an energy community truly benefits vulnerable households, as this approach relies on specific financial incentives like reduced network tariffs, VAT exemptions, and mechanisms for advancing or forfeiting shares. Another examples of municipality working on inclusion by-design is Valencia, that is supporting energy communities involving energy poor households in their activities, as well as changing the public procurement rules to incentivise energy production for energy poor households.
Yet, money alone is not enough; as the energy community Getafe Potencia shows, trust takes time to build, meaning that even cost-free participation does not guarantee uptake. Sustained, personal engagement alongside peer local ambassadors from within the community remains the most effective path forward, turning the energy transition into a genuine exercise in democracy. This shift necessitates a move beyond mere distributional fairness toward procedural justice, ensuring that vulnerable and social participants hold full, equal membership rights with a real say in how their community is run.
To support these efforts, local authorities play a pivotal and scalable role, where even limited municipal investment—whether covering land, rooftops, or a share of costs for vulnerable members—can unlock community-led projects and provide a replicable model for others. However, significant implementation gaps remain; while the EU Citizens Energy Package has advanced the cause by setting allocation targets for vulnerable consumers in sharing schemes and introducing new funding instruments, much of this progress rests on recommendations rather than binding law, leading to enormous variation across member states. Consequently, embedding energy communities and energy-poverty targets directly into national and regional partnership plans under the next Multi-annual Financial Framework will be critical to sustaining this progress.
Recommended links
- Find the material here and recording here.
- Read the Lumiar energy community's guidance document.
- Visit the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub's website.
- Explore our Homegrown Energy Engagement Action.
Details
- Publication date
- 23 June 2026