In our days, the particularly important role of local governments with respect to energy efficiency issues becomes evident through the existence of several policies and EU Directives explicitly referring to the need for local authorities activation for creating European Sustainable Energy Communities.

An Energy Sustainable Community is a community which includes and applies a Sustainable Energy Action Plan among its tasks.This Plan may contain energy efficiency measures, renewable energy sources projects and other interventions and actions within the energy sector, so as to cover all sectors of the Community's energy consumption (buildings, street lighting, provisions, equipment, transport, energy behavior).

Essentially, an Energy Sustainable Community is a community whose local and regional governments have committed themselves to support sustainable energy actions.