Development of Innovative methodologies for the aggregation of distributed energy resources in energy communities

In 2019, the European Union finalized the ’Clean Energy Package for All Europeans’, a set of 8 laws covering the crucial aspects and actions needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve climate resilience and facilitate the energy transition process in a fair and unified manner. The old Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC has been revised and replaced by the new Directive 2018/2001/EU (also known as RED II), which came into force in December 2018. The new directive updates the European targets for renewable energy sources (RES) and energy efficiency in the post-2020 energy framework and looking ahead to 2030, in line with the 2030 Energy and Climate Framework and the ambitious 2050 Long-Term Climate Neutrality Strategy. One of the main innovations of the directive is the introduction of Energy Communities (ECs) as the main vector for realising the energy transition. RED II recognises ownership and proximity as factors that incentivise the acceptance of RES projects. It also defines new and favourable regulatory aspects for the penetration of energy communities that promote collective self-consumption. RED II distinguishes two types of energy communities: Citizen Energy Communities and Renewable Energy Communities. The differences between the two lie in the types of energy used and the requirement for proximity of participants: specifically, the former are limited to electricity and do not require proximity of members, the latter only consider renewable energy but the proximity of members is binding. This work proposes an innovative power-sharing model, i.e., a power-system architecture for aggregation of users able to share the power produced by common generators and energy services. The model is suitable for both multi-tenant buildings and groups of multiple buildings and it is applicable for both existing and new buildings. It is scalable for larger systems and suitable for an easier integration with storage systems. The novel principle of the model is that the energy produced by common generators can be shared among the end-users in a unidirectional way, so that each user remains passive towards the distributor, except a single active user that assumes the role of balance node. This key feature allows for easily implementing the model in all the residential and tertiary multi-units buildings in full compliance with national regulations, with the adoption of power sharing contracts as well. This work discusses the feasibility of the model through a dynamic Matlab/Simulink model, which is used to show its effectiveness in several case studies. The significance of this work consists of approaching the energy sharing in buildings with a completely new strategy, based on an innovative system architecture that can be effectively implemented.