Energy-community development grant
Grants for active Austrian energy communities to involve more participants or improve digital monitoring and flexible electricity use.
The Energiegemeinschaften programme supports services and necessary supporting purchases in one or both tracks. The participation track covers outreach, workshops, advice and social organisation. Its eligible-cost ceiling is €10,000 net per community. The digitalisation track covers advice alongside forecasting, real-time monitoring, communications and controls for generators, storage and consumers. Its ceiling is €20,000 net per community. Software or hardware alone without advice accompanying implementation is excluded.
The grant pays 50% of accepted costs after final accounting. VAT can count only if you actually and definitively bear it and cannot deduct input VAT.
Eligibility
You must already operate a collective generation installation, a renewable-energy community or a citizen energy community under Austrian electricity law. Citizen energy communities must use exclusively renewable generation. The community’s legal entity applies; an umbrella legal entity can apply for several communities. For collective installations, the responsible person or operator may be an individual or legal entity.
Active consumption meter points must total at least five for a collective installation, ten for a local renewable-energy community, and twenty for a regional renewable-energy community, citizen energy community or umbrella applicant. Applicants declare willingness to admit nearby participants and commit to transparent information and prices under the Austrian coordination office’s recommendations.
For the participation track, fulfil at least two of these eight criteria: recruit new participants; support socially disadvantaged groups; provide special information or advice; diversify membership; create shared infrastructure; run targeted awareness activities; encourage changes in behaviour; or guarantee stable long-term energy prices.
For the digitalisation track, fulfil at least two of these six criteria: pursue lower generation and demand peaks; use digital tools to optimise members’ consumption; include a private, shared or public charging point; include intelligently used storage coordinated with the community; include a heat-pump consumer or integrated local/district heating solution; or create effective incentives to automate or make electricity use flexible. KPC checks the relevant criteria at application and final accounting. Failure to reach two after implementation cancels the grant contract.
Excluded costs include generation equipment, storage, consumption equipment and charging infrastructure themselves; ongoing software use; your own staff work or materials; legally required activities; individual invoices below €500 net; related services over €5,000 net paid in cash; discounts even if unused; unrelated equipment or activities; taxes, fees and grid connection/access costs; and services from associated companies or companies with identical governing bodies. Services covered by the nationwide energy-community advice network or Climate and Energy Model Regions, and measures already funded under the 2021–2024 calls, are excluded. Costs before application or after the completion deadline do not count.
Other federal grants cannot fund the same measures or investment portions. Regional and municipal grants can be combined within state-aid ceilings; disclose other public funding applications at application and final reporting.
The state-aid rules exclude an undertaking in difficulty under the formal Investment Funding Guidelines §3(19) test and applicants with an unfulfilled European Commission recovery order. Follow applicable equality, disability nondiscrimination and procurement laws; provide proof of reasonable project pricing if needed for assessment.
How to apply
- Status
- closed
- Opens
- Closes
- Round restrictions
- The 2025-labelled call is closed.
The 2025 call is closed. Its applications were submitted exclusively online to Kommunalkredit Public Consulting (KPC), before the first binding order or other commitment making the project irreversible. The application required the form, planned measures and itemised costs, the EDA market-participant identifier and, where applicable, quotations for major services. Applications were ranked by receipt date; approval depended on a positive assessment and available budget. Accept the emailed grant contract by signing the acceptance declaration.
Approved measures must be implemented within one year from approval, with a further six months to prepare final accounting and the report. An exceptional extension of implementation, up to one additional year, requires written evidence of causes outside your control. The final submission includes invoices, order confirmations, payment evidence and the report, demonstrating the track criteria and anonymised operating data over at least six months after implementation.
Request project or cost changes using the Nachantrag form by the deadline in KPC’s formal-check letter and before the first binding order, delivery, construction or other irreversible commitment, whichever comes first. Notify KPC immediately of significant changes and major delays or obstacles, and obtain its consent to significant changes.
Cooperate with checks and provide records, evidence and access when requested, subject to the rules’ exception where the nature of the funding makes those checks administratively unnecessary. This contractual obligation runs for the legally required period and at least ten years from the grant award. Separately, losing documents through your own fault so final accounting cannot be verified within ten years after project completion can trigger repayment, except where the guidelines permit an administrative exception that complies with state-aid law and the programme conditions.