Managing renewable electricity within collective self-consumption schemes: A systematic private law approach

The EU electricity market reform has created new opportunities for citizens to be involved into market dynamics as active customers. A new set of rules entitles people to collectively become self-consumer of renewable energy, which means to consume the electricity produced by production units located on different sites from where they operate or live, conferring them rights and duties which can be exercised either individually or collectively. Whenever two or more grid users are committed to produce and consume renewable energy within a limited area of the public grid corresponding to the same electrical substation a collective self-consumption scheme (or CSC scheme) is formed, regardless of any formal structure and qualification they have. According to the EU Law, electricity exchanges carried out within a CSC scheme can be classified in terms of sharing or trading, even though both reflects the same physical phenomenon on the grid. However, the EU directives does not provide strong elements to draw the line between such concepts. In addition, literature reviewing highlighted that there is not a clear understanding of what exactly distinguishes trading from sharing of electricity. Such distinction has relevant consequences in Law, including for what concerns a value-oriented analysis between individualism-based and pluralism-based models. Moving from these premises, this study aims to examine whether the private law might be able to provide instruments to address such distinction.