Czechia

Overall assessment

The final Czech National Recovery and Resilience Plan, including the REPowerEU chapter, marks a significant improvement from previous drafts. Ultimately, the Czech government decided to withdraw support for two controversial fossil fuel projects it had been considering, namely the TAL+ oil pipeline and the Stork II gas interconnector with Poland.

The NRRP now provides for several reforms and investments to support energy communities, namely:

  • Reform 1, which foresees the establishment of a regulatory framework to facilitate the development of energy communities. The reform specifically mentions that "the open participation principle" will be enforced for energy communities, while the latter will also be allowed to participate in the renewable heating market. Additionally, energy communities shall have the right to receive metering data on electricity supplies , metering data taking into account electricity shared within the energy community and evaluated data. Template documents, (including technical and economical feasibility studies, contracts and legal documents related to the establishment of the energy communities) will be published on the websites of the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Industry.
  • Reform 2, foresees the participation of energy communities in the flexibility market, including demand response and storage, through the development of incentives and the right regulatory framework.
  • One-stop-shops for energy communities and energy efficiency renovations: The reform shall include support measures towards the education and information of municipalities and citizens on the concept and advantages of energy communities, including the creation of one stop shop to provide technical support on regulatory, technical, financial and organisational aspects, related to energy communities and specific renovation and energy efficiency measures.

EU funds are also earmarked for improving distribution networks and establishing an electricity data centre, which will help facilitate the uptake of energy communities and decentralised energy production.

Unfortunately, the process of updating the recovery plan has provided limited opportunities for public participation, in particular by civil society.