The Valencia City Council is promoting Local Energy Communities providing legal advisory and mediation skills to promote agreements among neighbours around Local Energy Communities, under the legal form of Association. The public involvement is guaranteeing inclusive access and sustainability in the initial phase. 

Ongoing initiative (from 2019 to now)

The City of Valencia is actively working towards EU climate neutral objectives: in September 2019, the City signed a climate pre-contract with 7 other Spanish cities and the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition. Besides, the City has been selected in the cohort of the EU Mission Climate Neutral Cities by 2030. Valencia is an active member of CitiES2030, Spanish Nacional Platform of cities through climate neutrality. In 2019, the City launched Missions València 2030, as a replication of the EU Missions at a city scale.

Local energy communities in Valencia are been promoted since 2019 by the public sector as an example of commitment with the whole city climate neutrality objective in 2030. The City Council of Valencia, through the Climate and Energy municipal Foundation and the network of Energy Officesin city districts, provides legal advisory and mediation skills to promote agreements among neighbour communities around Local Energy Communities (under the legal form of Association). This is provoking a chain effect among more and more neighbours communities asking for city services and accompaniment in the whole city.

• Missions València 2030 commitment made by the city in 2019, follows the Missions of the European Union’s Horizon Europe (2021-2027) program, to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and to improve the quality of life for its citizens.
  
• Urban Strategy València 2030, to benefit from cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral municipal coordination. 
  
• Climate and Energy municipal Foundation is directly commitment with the Global Covenant of Mayors emissions reduction objectives signing the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP)
  

In 2020, the European Commission acknowledged València as one of the most innovative cities in Europe. Contributing to the Mission selection process, and in parallel, Missions València 2030 also includes a process of organisational innovation with the aim of refocusing efforts, building capacities, and making the city of València and its City Council a true testing ground for mission-oriented innovation.

Local Energy Communities promotedby the City Council guarantee energy access to the most vulnerable people acting as a participant in the Energy Community (using the legal figure of the Association) in its initial phase, and paying a fee like all the other neighbours, with the condition of supporting the cost of those who cannot assume the initial cost. It is done in coordination with Social Services of the City and assuming a fee payment in Energy Communities located in vulnerable areas. City Council is providing legal advisory and mediation skills to promote agreements among neighbours around Local Energy Communities. They have developed a template to create the legal organisation (Association legal figure) and facilitates workshops in the districts, face to face, to create the Energy Community. City Council is promoting pilots on public and, also on private building to test different models of production of energy in the city. 

Valencia City Council through the Climate and Energy Municipal Foundation. 

• Neighbors communities and association (less than 1000 until now): Prosumers, members of the Local Energy Community Association
  
• Consultancy services: Facilitation of workshops with neighbors
  
• Climate and Energy municipal Foundation (Teamof the Foundation): Management and finance of services (legal advisory and facilitation or workshops)
  
• Energy Municipal Offices network (Team in the Offices): Legal advisory
  
• Valencia City Council: Initiator
  
• Distribuitoras and  Market agents: Negotiation of the value chain (at medium term) 
  

• Political: Political commitment at the highest level in the city (Mayor involved) to the UE Missions. Support from Deputies and other units in the City Council.
  
• Economic: Public money to promote pilots, at the moment
  
• Social: First neighbor pilot communities are working, and the City Council is acting as a participant in the Energy Community in its initial phase, paying a fee like all the other neighbours in the most vulnerable districts, with the condition of supporting the cost of those who cannot assume the initial cost. It is done in coordination with Social Services of the City
  
• Technical: Technical capacities inside City Council
  
• Legal: Main service offers from the City to neighbor to create the Energy Community 
  

• Legal: Transposition of European directives to the Spanish regulation not completed yet.
  
• Economic: Market readiness and conditions from energy distribution companies to be checked (e.g. to reconfigure the load capacity of the energy system to take on local discharges from local energy communities).
  
• Social: Rejection by some neighbourhood communities to use the roofs of their residential buildings for the photovoltaic installation. The old Spanish restrictive legislation for self-consumption of energy (commonly called “impuesto al sol”) remains in the collective imagination and many people do not know that it is now allowed (and even encouraged) by the new EU regulation
  
• Technical: Future rejection from energy distribution companies in the energy valuechain to attend local energy communities demands and to reconfigure the load capacity of the energy system to take on local discharges and its conditions. 
  

• Pilots in public buildings are going better than the private ones because of the pandemic and difficulties to talk with neighbors face-to-face.
  
• Energy Offices from City Council offering accompaniment, training workshops and legal advisory services at district level.
  

The Valencia City Council is preparing itself for an organizational change for the next scalability phase, designing a new legal and financial entity to manage Local Energy Communities: a private-public company. Energy Municipal Offices network at district scale continues to be the reticular adequate municipal structure to attend social demands in the field. 

Main positive lessons/opportunities identified:

• Energy Municipal Offices network at district scale
  
• Private and public pilots running in parallel under the legal form of Association
  
• Mayor’s commitment
  
• Current legislation allows to make photovoltaics (PV) installations (which can later on help to form an energy community) in a multiapartment building with only 1/3 quorum from the neighbours
  

Main failures/barriers identified:

• New EU regulation has not been adapted to the Spanish regulation completely yet. It provides freedom to energy communities to be constituted in the legal form that they want, but it also lacks on assistance (what they need, which steps they need to perform, etc.) and provokes people to be more reluctant to do so by themselves.
  
• The old Spanish restrictive legislation for self-consumption of energy (commonly called “tax sun”) remains in the collective imagination and many people do not know that it is now allowed by the Royal Decree 244.
  
• Rejection by some neighborhood communities to use the roofs of their residential buildings for the photovoltaic installation.
  
• Some public buildings are not under the jurisdiction of Valencia which limits energy communities' expansion.
  
• Municipalities in Spain, as Valencia, cannot offer their public roofs so easily to neighbours because when 40k€ are exceeded you need a tendering procedure.

http://climaienergia.com/es/

https://www.valencia.es/es/-/evaluaci%C3%B3n-oficina-de-la-energ%C3%ADa