Municipalities in Romania are receiving a new framework for managing energy at local level: energy communities will have clearer operational rules, suppliers will be required to provide free online accounts to final customers, and consumers may be notified when they reach up to 80% of their estimated monthly consumption.

For town halls, these changes – to be implemented from October 1, 2026 – can become the basis for a more active approach to the energy used in public buildings, street lighting, schools, markets, social centres, sports facilities and other local services. Faced with volatile prices and budgetary pressure, local administrations are carrying out an increasing number of investments in photovoltaics, energy efficiency and digitalization. Beyond funded projects, municipalities now have access to new rules that allow consumption to be measured, allocated, controlled and communicated.

ANRE announced on June 30, 2026, that it had drafted the Order amending and supplementing the Regulation on the supply of electricity to final customers. For municipalities, the most important development is the regulation of energy communities. The Order defines shared electricity, the main supplier, the community’s operating rules and surplus electricity. It also establishes the contractual instruments through which energy can be supplied within the community: the shared electricity supply contract, the contract for the difference in consumption and the multipartite agreement between the community, the distribution operator and the main supplier.

Allocation of generated energy

This architecture is relevant for cities and communes preparing investments in local energy generation, especially photovoltaics, on public buildings or available land. A town hall that produces energy at one point within the public asset portfolio needs to understand whether and how it can use that energy for the benefit of several consumption points, how the energy is allocated among members, who validates the quantities, who invoices and how the surplus is treated.

The Regulation introduces two algorithms for allocating shared energy: one proportional to the consumption recorded at each consumption point and one based on fixed percentages established through the community’s operating rules. The distribution operator has the central role of determining and validating the quantities of shared energy, with its data serving as the single basis for invoicing and settlement. This provision is essential for local administrations, because it reduces the risk of interpretation and conflict among the members of an energy community. In a municipal project, members may include public buildings with very different consumption profiles: a school consumes energy differently from an administrative headquarters, a food market or a sports facility. Without clear allocation rules and data validated by the distribution operator, the economic benefits of local generation may become difficult to share and difficult to justify.

Detailed information in electronic format

Another important change is the obligation for electricity suppliers to make available to all final customers a free personalised online account for the entire duration of the contract. This must include consumption data broken down hourly, daily, monthly and annually, depending on the type of meter, issued invoices, payment history, cost structure, graphical representations of consumption and electronic communication functionalities.

For municipalities, this digitalization can be a concrete step towards professional management of the consumption portfolio. Many town halls manage dozens or hundreds of consumption points, from administrative offices and schools to public lighting, cultural centres or social infrastructure. Access to better data can support budgeting, invoice checks, the identification of abnormal consumption and the preparation of energy-efficiency projects.

Automatic notification

The automatic notification service when a threshold of up to 80% of estimated monthly consumption is reached is especially important for consumers that need budgetary control. The supplier will send an alert with the recorded consumption data, the estimated monthly consumption, the percentage reached and information on the possibility of adjusting consumption. The notification may be sent by e-mail, SMS or other agreed electronic channels.

For local administrations, this tool can help prevent unnoticed consumption overruns in public buildings and local services. Instead of the town hall discovering the problem only when the invoice arrives, the alert can allow quick checks: operating schedule, faulty equipment, unusual consumption, heating or cooling settings, lighting or intensive use of a building.

The European Commission considers energy communities an instrument for safer, cleaner and more affordable energy, while REPowerEU set out the political objective that every municipality with more than 10,000 inhabitants should be able to have at least one energy community. In Romania, energy communities are still at an early stage of practical implementation, although the European and national framework has begun to be transposed into legislation.

For practical implementation, the role of municipalities can be decisive. Local authorities can make available public buildings, land, consumption data, administrative capacity and institutional trust; they can aggregate local consumers – schools, hospitals, public lighting, markets, social centres, SMEs or vulnerable households – and they can turn photovoltaic, energy-efficiency or storage projects into local tools for reducing costs and increasing resilience.

Photo source

We adapted a diagram available at Dehouche, Zahir & Garner, Robert. (2023). Optimal Design and Analysis of a Hybrid Hydrogen Energy Storage System for an Island-based Renewable Energy Community. 10.20944/preprints202308.0471.v1.