Energy communities and self-consumption: what can a business do?

The CACER decree, in brief

Decree no. 414 of 7 December 2023 of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) is known as CACER, after the Italian for self-consumption configurations for sharing renewable energy, and has been in force since 24 January 2024. It provides for two measures: an incentive tariff on shared energy and a capital grant from the PNRR, Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The access procedures were set out by the GSE, Italy’s energy services operator, in an operating document updated to 16 July 2025.

Three configurations receive the tariff, and all of them use the existing distribution grid:

• remote self-consumer: a single final customer connects a plant and its consumption points through the grid, even in different locations;
• group of self-consumers: customers in the same building or block of flats acting together;
• renewable energy community (REC): an autonomous legal entity whose purpose is to provide environmental, economic or social benefits to its members and the local area, not financial profits.

The boundary: the same primary substation

For the tariff, plants and consumption points must be connected to the grid in the area served by the same primary substation: the electrical station that, with a high-to-medium voltage transformer, feeds the distribution grid. The areas are published by the GSE on a single national map.

Two limits to know before you start: a consumption point under net metering (scambio sul posto) cannot join a configuration, and each point, whether consumption or production, can belong to only one.

The tariff: 20 years on shared energy

Shared energy is, hour by hour, the lower of the energy fed in by the plants and the energy drawn by the configuration’s consumption points. On the share within the same primary substation, the GSE grants a premium tariff for 20 years from the plant’s entry into commercial operation. The energy fed in remains the producer’s, who can sell it or transfer it to the GSE through the dedicated withdrawal scheme.

The tariff changes every hour and depends on three things:

• the size of the plant: a fixed part of €80/MWh up to 200 kW, 70 up to 600 kW and 60 above, plus a part that grows when the hourly zonal price falls below €180/MWh, with a cap of €120, €110 or €100/MWh;
• where it is located: for photovoltaics, €4/MWh is added in the regions of the Centre, including Tuscany and Umbria, and €10/MWh in those of the North;
• the capital grant: if the plant has received one, the tariff is reduced, by up to half with a 40% grant.

The plant must be new or an upgrade, up to 1 MW, commissioned from 16 December 2021; for a REC, after the community was set up.

The PNRR grant, and where it stands

For RECs and groups of self-consumers, but not for the remote self-consumer, there is also a non-repayable grant of up to 40% of eligible costs, for plants up to 1 MW in municipalities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. At first the threshold was 5,000: it was raised by MASE Decree no. 127 of 16 May 2025.

Applications closed on 30 November 2025, and the funds requested exceed those available. Decree-Law no. 19 of 19 February 2026, in Article 27, entrusted the GSE with a programme to give continuity to the measure; funded plants must be commissioned no later than 31 December 2027. Anyone assessed positively but left out of the funds is eligible if the ranking moves forward, and still gets the premium tariff for 20 years.

Who can take part, if you are a business

• In a REC, only SMEs, small and medium-sized enterprises, can be shareholders or members, and for them taking part in the community cannot be their main commercial and industrial activity: this is set out in Article 31 of Legislative Decree 199 of 2021. Large companies cannot be shareholders or members.
• As a remote self-consumer, the business is the final customer that consumes: the plant can belong to a third party, or be operated by a third party, provided the third party follows the self-consumer’s instructions.
• A producer can have its energy count in a REC or a group even without being part of it, through a mandate to the configuration’s representative: this is the “third-party producer”, and energy production can be its main activity.

The tariff can be applied for until the thirtieth day after the incentivised capacity reaches 5 GW, and in any case no later than 31 December 2027.

What EKA does for self-consumption and RECs

In self-consumption and RECs we work as a trusted operational manager: we coordinate investors and the companies that design and build the plant (EPC). The plant can be built and operated by third parties, who share the benefit with you. We do not give advice on incentives and, for now, we do not provide professional assistance on GSE matters. How we work is on the Self-consumption and RECs page.