The Croatian Renewable Energy Association OIEH has spent the past two years running the project "Renewable Energy for All – Accelerating the Uptake of Renewables" together with RE-Source Poland. The aim of the project is to help municipalities, energy cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises source renewable electricity directly through power purchase agreements.
The interim results took centre stage on the final day of OIE Days 2026, held at the end of May in Opatija. Through interviews, panel discussions and best-practice examples from Croatia and across Europe, participants examined how citizens, businesses and local communities can take a more active role in the energy market, achieve greater energy independence and stabilise costs over the long term.
1.5 gigawatts of distributed capacity
Anton Marušić, chairman of grid operator HEP-ODS, told the conference that since 1 April 2026 energy communities have been able to distribute electricity among their members. It is now the responsibility of the energy communities themselves to define contracts and distribution models for the electricity generated.
Croatia has also made considerable progress with the prosumer model in recent years, as Tina Jakaša, technical director of energy company Petrol, confirmed. "Today, around 46,000 distributed energy sources with a total capacity of about 1,500 MW are connected to the electricity grid," she said. "Regulatory uncertainties around the prosumer model have largely been resolved. But new problems are emerging in the areas of energy distribution and surplus electricity production."
Inconsistent legislation
Jakaša cited inconsistent legislation and its implementing provisions as one of the biggest obstacles. "In one law you have an active customer, in another a consumer of your own renewable energy, and then you get completely lost in the implementing regulations.”
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Energy communities in Croatia remain at an early stage. According to Damir Medved of the North Adriatic Energy Community, three are currently registered, yet none has so far exchanged a single kilowatt-hour among its members. "That is the answer to the question of whether the system is working," said Medved .
Overcomplication of a simple idea
In his view, the problem lies less in the regulatory framework itself than in its interpretation and implementation. The basic idea behind energy communities is simple: citizens who jointly produce energy share surpluses among themselves through a shared connection. But regulatory hurdles make the concept complicated in practice. His own energy community is currently in arbitration with HEP-ODS over a contractual dispute and is awaiting a decision from the regulator.
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Progress is also repeatedly held up by procedural delays. As an example, he cited an eighteen-month wait for the specification of the table used to define allocation keys for distributing energy among members. "When there is room for interpretation, that is not a good thing," Medved said. "The Ministry of Economy should bring all relevant stakeholders together and help resolve outstanding issues."
Public sector should get involved
Doris Pajković, senior fellow at the International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA, pointed to regulatory uncertainties and the insufficient recognition of energy communities in the legal framework. She too sees energy communities in Croatia as being at an early stage, and argued that the public sector needs to engage more actively. International comparisons show that energy communities establish themselves more quickly where municipalities or local authorities are involved – in Croatia, this is still rarely the case. She cited projects in the County of Istria aimed at optimising energy consumption in public buildings as a local example of what is possible.
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Clarity within seven days
Sanjin Vranković, who heads the spatial planning, construction and environmental protection at the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar and director of regional energy agency Kvarner in north-western Croatia, cited Austria as a positive example of how the energy community model can move forward. "Everything must be clear and accessible within seven days: how to become an active customer, how to set up an energy community and how to conclude a power purchase agreement," he said. "There are also major regional differences in other European countries, and a clearer and more harmonised European legal framework would significantly support the development of energy communities."
As for the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar itself, he said the region was seriously considering setting up an energy community, but had not yet begun implementation due to insufficiently clear rules on involving public institutions and companies in such models. (su)
