Renewable energy communities (KER)

A renewable energy community is a local legal group that owns a renewable project and uses that energy together. In Albanian the name is Komunitet i Energjisë së Rinovueshme (KER). In English it is often called a renewable energy community (REC).

This page is the ministry instruction that says how a KER is created and how it runs. It was issued under Law 24/2023, article 21, point 6. The official PDF is attached. The English text here is a TradingDesk explanation, not the legal wording.

The community exists to bring environmental, economic or social benefit to its members and to the area where it operates.

Official source: the attached instruction, Udhëzim nr. 4, 29 June 2026, Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy.

Who can take part. Membership is open and voluntary. Members can be people, small and medium businesses, and municipalities. A municipality may join only inside its own territory. A private company may join when energy is not its main business. The community must encourage low-income households and customers in need to join. Members keep their rights as customers of their electricity supplier. A member may leave with 30 days' notice, without a penalty, after paying amounts already due.

What the community can do. It may produce, consume, store, share and sell renewable energy. It may offer aggregation, including power-purchase agreements. It may reach the energy markets directly or through an aggregator. Energy sharing means moving renewable energy that the community itself produces, inside the community.

Benefits set out in the instruction. Members and the local area receive environmental, economic or social value from a project they control nearby. Households can take part, including families with low income. Energy can be stored and shared inside the community, and surplus can be sold. The energy ministry is to help with finance, clear information, model documents and training for public authorities that want to join or support a community. A small demonstration project under 10.8 kW uses a simpler notice to the distribution operator for grid connection.

How it is organised. Any Albanian legal form is allowed, including a company, a cooperative or a non-profit. The statute keeps the community purpose, open membership, local control and independence from outside control. Voting is one member, one vote. Each year, 75% of profit is invested back into that purpose: more renewable projects, storage, energy sharing, energy efficiency and improvements in buildings.

Near the project means the same municipality, and the same distribution substation, or a similar distribution setup named by the distribution operator. ERE may accept a neighbouring municipality in an exceptional case, when the community stays local.

Before it operates, the community registers with ERE. ERE keeps a public register on its website. The community starts only after it is on that register. It still follows the market rules and the grid codes approved by ERE. Network charges still apply. ERE sets them so they are fair and based on real cost.

ERE Decision 268 of 11 September 2026 is the registration procedure and the public register. ERE Decision 269 of the same day is the model membership agreement. Both files are attached on this page. Each also has its own Wiki page. The titles on those files still say Projekt. The headers say the ERE board approved them. The technical and financial method for sharing energy is the later act the instruction gives ERE 6 months to adopt. The instruction enters into force after publication in the Official Gazette. Clause-level papers for the ERE file stay in the PDF.

On TradingDesk, REC is the community side of the platform: members, each share, energy sharing, reconciliation of each member in MWh, and settlement of money inside the community. The market receives only what is left after that sharing. This Wiki page is the ministry instruction. Live sharing numbers stay empty until a community rule is set.