Last Friday, Xavier Simón, Professor of Applied Economics and coordinator of the EC4RURAL project, participated as a speaker in the meeting organised by RDG Terra e Auga to study the viability of the Xera project as a tool to promote energy transition at the supra-municipal level in ten municipalities of this territory (A Cañiza, As Neves, Arbo, Covelo, Crecente, Mondariz, Mondariz Balneario, Ponteareas, Salceda de Caselas and Salvaterra de Miño).
The municipal representatives agreed to work together to change the energy model, with joint planning and a supra-municipal scope, led by RDG Terra e Auga at the Centro de Emprendemento Dinamización Empresarial de Ponteareas (CEDEP). The roadmap now includes the provision of training and information, as well as the convening of new meetings in order to advance the legislation and to deepen the fundamental technical aspects of accurate planning.
From Simón’s point of view, it was a very creative and constructive meeting, as the round table included the municipalities, the RDG Terra e Auga, the engineering company Lumea, owned by the local distributor Grupo Sestelo, and the University of Vigo, represented by himself. “The meeting was approached from a multi-stakeholder perspective, which is fully in line with EC4RURAL’s working proposal,” he pointed out.
The municipal representatives present not only appreciated the usefulness of the meeting, but also the need to pursue this line of work, since the main and initial obstacles are broadly linked to the lack of awareness of the public, but also of the municipal technicians themselves. “This limitation must be overcome, and our project can help”, said the EC4RURAL coordinator.
First fundamental step
Another added value of the Xera project of the RDG Terra e Auga is that it has, from the beginning, relied on the participation of the distributors in the design of the Rural Energy Communities (REC). “In this RDG there is an important advantage because in several municipalities there are historic distributors that are very attached to the territory, such as Sociedad Electricista de Tui (SETA) and Hermanos Requejo; and there is also UFD,” Simón commented afterwards.
In his turn, Simón presented the project and the experience of EC4RURAL for the constitution of rural energy communities, based on the design of small-scale local strategies controlled by local actors. “When there is a sufficient number of them, it will be possible to think about initiatives with a larger territorial scope, which will group them together, give them a lxistic coverage and also serve to take advantage of all the potentialities of this new energy model”. In the territory of the RDG Terra e Auga, Simón did not fail to highlight the “incipient experience and example to imitate” of the municipality of Neves.
