The city of Liberec has been working on the development of community energy since 2023. The short-term goal is the establishment of an energy company/service organization in 2024, in such a form that will enable the future development of community energy (especially with regard to the necessary investments, financing, including taking into account the conditions of relevant legislation). The long-term goal is above all to achieve energy stability, independence, security, including the economic benefits of a successfully functioning model and, last but not least, to contribute to the city's climate commitments through an increase in the share of renewable resources.

To realize its vision, the city used a subsidy call from the Horizont 2020 program (Pilot Cities Call) and formed a consortium partners/broader project team (city as lead partner, Technical University of Liberec, Teplárna Liberec, LEEF Technologies). Thanks to the subsidy, it was possible to start systematically preparing the establishment of community energy in cooperation with key stakeholders, with the fact that an optimal concept of operation is currently being set up with regard to the development of legislation, mapping of stakeholders in the territory, setting up horizontal and vertical cooperation even when expanding the community, technological possibilities/ potential, etc.

The emphasis is also on the development of low-emission/zero-emission transport, communication with stakeholders/activation of potential community members (based on a communication strategy, marketing campaign and emerging online platform), on cooperation with the academic sector. At the moment, the preparatory phase preceding the establishment of the company, which will be responsible for the management of the community/s, is underway. This phase is also directly connected with the development of energy management in the city based on monitoring and determining the potential for energy savings using smart solutions (SW).

The project is generally divided into three phases, where at the beginning the concept of community energy will be tested on city property, i.e. city buildings, in the next phase households, family houses, apartment buildings, small and medium-sized enterprises will be connected, only in the last phase then large business entities.

The project is particularly in line with the city's main strategic document (SML Development Strategy 2021 - 2030), with measures set out in Sustainable energy and climate action plan (SECAP), Local energy concept, Urban Sustainable Mobility Plan (SUMP). The direct link of the project is primarily to the Czech legislation relevant to community energy.

It is possible to estimate about 42 million CZK for the development of community energy, for the preparation itself (the Initiation of community energy project for the city of Liberec as supported by the Horizon 2020 program), is for the duration of the project, i.e. 6/23 - 5/ 2025, allocated approx. 25 million CZK.

The project is now in the preparation phase communicated through the city website, Facebook Climate neutral Liberec, platform NetZeroCities. In the coming months, a media campaign targeting citizens (households) and using various communication channels such as the web, outdoor advertising, radio, television, workshops, webinars for the target group will take place (the campaign will be based on the developed communication strategy of the project).< br />
Article: The city of Liberec will use millions from European funds to build community of energy (03/2023)

The development of community energy can bring the following benefits to cities: