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In Belgium, POWER UP implemented a pilot scheme in the city of Eeklo, a forerunner in local renewable energy production.
This pilot implemented two complementary social energy services:
* Social shares of an energy cooperative (ECOPOWER) pre-financed by the municipality, allowing vulnerable households to directly access renewable energy at cost price
In Eeklo 4% of the total households are abandoned by their supplier because of payment issues and are supplied by the distribution systems operator (DSO), which acts as an emergency social supplier. Worse, they even pay a higher price for electricity than normal. Another striking figure is that 24.1% of the children in Eeklo grow up in a vulnerable situation.
The energy cooperative Ecopower is a key partner of the city of Eeklo since years. In POWER UP the two organizations achieved the following:
→ Social shares in wind energy: The city used its stake in an existing Ecopower wind turbine on its territory to pre-finance social shares for vulnerable households. Participants become full cooperative members, accessing electricity at cost from Belgium’s largest citizen energy cooperative, Ecopower. While benefiting from cooperative membership, each household follows a structured saving plan with a fee of €3 /month on the bill to gradually pay back their share over six years.
→ Plug-in PV panels as an add-on: To further reduce costs and make the cooperative tariff affordable, Ecopower offers households a free plug-in PV system (400W), thereby lowering grid consumption by 10–15%. The energy cooperative is financing the panels out of the cooperative social fund with, among others, profits from the wind plant.
→ Engagement through trust: The city’s social department led outreach, partnering with local associations and using WhatsApp, simple visuals, and workshops in familiar places. Formal letters were complemented by personal contact.
A Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of East Flanders, 21.500 inhabitants
Ecopower cv is a citizen and renewable energy community since 1991. Our objective is to harvest part of the environmental energy together for our own sustainable use. Ecopower has more than 60.000 cooperative members in the Flemish region, 70% of the members has only one share of 250€. Ecopower gathers financial resources from as many cooperative members (shareholders) as possible and uses these funds to invest in renewable energy projects. Together we own 20 windturbines, small hydroplants, lots of PV-installations, district heating network, wood pellet factory.
Each pilot organisation has found a ‘sparring partner’ organisation in its region which expressed its intention to replicate the pilot scheme.
