Power Circle Energigemenskaper Faktablad (2026)

Power Circle, Vad är en energigemenskap? (faktablad, March 2026) — a factsheet on energy communities (energigemenskaper) in the Swedish electricity-system context, produced within an Energiforsk-funded research project. Covers definitions, the sharing-mechanism taxonomy, grid benefits, Swedish regulation/incentives, and example projects.

Key claims

• No formal Swedish definition of energigemenskap; described as an association of members that jointly consume, produce, store and/or sell energy. EU defines two types: Medborgarenergigemenskap (CEC) — Elmarknadsdirektivet, no geographic limit, electricity market, technology-neutral — and Gemenskap för förnybar energi (REC) — Förnybartdirektivet, members near the renewable plant, whole energy sector, renewables only.
• Energidelning vs energigemenskap: energy sharing is the activity; an energy community is the organisational form that can use sharing as a tool. Ei proposes energidelning be defined as an electricity user’s self-consumption of renewable energy produced/stored in an owned, rented or leased facility, or transferred from another producing user.
• Three ways to share electricity:
  • Virtuell delning (virtual): shared via the existing grid by netting meter values; full network fees apply (electricity passes the meter / concession grid).
  • Eget kompletterande nät (complementary net, IKN): own cables between the included properties, allowed under the IKN-förordning provided each property keeps its ordinary grid connection; shared electricity is exempt from certain fees (does not pass the meter / concession grid). Sharing electricity on internal nets between residential buildings has been allowed only since 2022.
  • Helt eget nät (own net, rented/taken over): connection point moved out; allowed in Sweden only in exceptional cases (industrial areas, care/education institutions); more permissive abroad (e.g. renting part of the grid).
• Grid benefits: more efficient network utilisation (raise local self-consumption, coordinate charging/heating/storage → cut peaks toward overlying grid → headroom for more connections, deferred reinforcement, lower losses); improved voltage/power quality (less solar in-feed far out in the grid); robustness/resilience and ö-drift potential; a more efficient energy system via shared local investment (e.g. larger, cheaper-per-kWh batteries). Hedge: the factsheet explicitly notes these benefits are not automatic and energy communities can carry downsides — lock-in effects around technology/supplier choice, and increased resource use/environmental impact if a complementary net is built.
• Topplast research (“Energigemenskaper som stöttar elnätet”, 2025–2026, preliminary): at a nätstation, collective battery control (optimised against the area’s total load) cuts peak power more than individual battery control; individual customer peaks do not necessarily coincide with the grid’s peak, so optimising for individual peaks yields less grid benefit. (Individual case excluded external price/tariff signals.)
• Regulation/incentives (early 2026): no purpose-built Swedish incentives for energy communities (unlike some EU states). Tariff: complementary-net sharing exempt (behind the meter); virtual sharing pays full price (Austria has a reduced variable network fee, tiered by local vs regional grid). Energy tax: own-use solar <500 kW exempt; collective own-use via complementary net usually also exempt; no relief for virtual sharing. The energidelning lagförslag (government, Feb 2026; in force 1 Jan 2027) defines energidelning, requires sharing within one elområde, and has the customer’s supplier deduct shared electricity — criticised as the minimum possible EU-directive implementation. Energimyndigheten funded 19 energy-community/sharing projects in 2025.
• Scale: ~200 energy communities in Sweden (varied size); ~9,000 in the EU (most in Germany, Austria, Netherlands).
• Example projects: Tamarinden (Örebro) — ~800 homes, internal low-temp district-heat net + internal DC net (complementary net); shared automation platform; 2024 ruling that one ordinary-grid connection per property suffices, and HFD found the solar installations separate (<500 kW → tax-exempt own-use). Hammarby Sjöstad (Stockholm) — 10 BRFs / ~1,000 apartments, virtual sharing; proposed a DSO↔supplier model for lower tax/network fees (requires all members on one supplier); flagged the need for data standardisation/automation. EnergyNet (Lund) — ViaEuropa’s complementary DC net + elväxlar (power-electronic switches) with an open Energy Protocol; first two properties in Brunnshög connected spring 2025; larger Pottungen pilot (270 apartments) from 2026, enabling solar previously refused by the DSO.

Relevance to wiki

• Energy Communities — the three sharing models, IKN/tariff/tax treatment, the ~200 SE / ~9,000 EU counts, Swedish example projects, the topplast collective-vs-individual finding, and the “minimal implementation” critique of the energidelning law.
• Aggregation — energy communities as an FSP/aggregation vehicle.
• Elmarknadslagen — energidelning rules (Prop. 2025/26:240) corroborated and contextualised.
• New glossary terms: energidelning, energigemenskap, IKN / icke-koncessionspliktigt nät.