Search Results (16)

Energy communities enable prosumers to jointly operate distributed energy resources and thereby generate economic benefits that exceed those achievable individually. A central challenge in their implementation is selecting a Cost Allocation Method (CAM) that distributes these benefits fairly among heterogeneous participants. Although numerous CAMs have been proposed, they are often evaluated under different assumptions, making direct comparison difficult. This paper develops a unified axiomatic framework for assessing CAMs in energy communities and applies it to eight representative methods classified in three families: simple rules, savings-based, and price-based. The framework is built around seven desirable properties capturing principles of fairness, environmental friendliness, and continuity. Our main contribution is a comparative table that positions all methods within a single evaluative space and reveals the structural trade-offs that arise across CAMs. The analysis shows that the Average-Price CAM satisfies the same axiomatic properties as the Shapley method while remaining computationally trivial, making it an attractive practical option. We also show that the Extreme-Price CAM is the only price-based method that ensures the property of Beneficial Group Participation (core stability); however, this method violates other properties related to environmental friendliness and continuity—trade-offs we prove to be unavoidable for price-based rules. Finally, we conjecture that the nucleolus satisfies all seven properties, although its computation is rarely feasible in practice. The proposed framework provides researchers and practitioners with a transparent foundation for selecting and designing cost allocation methods in emerging energy communities. Full article

Agricultural prosumption is a transformative pathway, enabling individuals to reconnect to nature whilst producing food for their own consumption. Allotment gardens (AGs) and community-supported agriculture (CSA) are two main types of this practice, forming opposing sides on a continuous prosumption scale, ranging from prosumption-as-consumption (p-a-c), as in consumption focused CSA initiatives, to prosumption-as-production (p-a-p), as in the production-orientated AGs. Using a survey completed by Swiss CSA (n = 250) and AG members (n = 201), this study shows how prosumers perceive the benefits of their activity, how these experiences shape their likeliness to continue and how differently they rate the effects of prosumption on individuals, communities and society. In addition, it provides an outlook on associated societal developments, regarding these activities as forms of contributive economy. Although the two groups differed in their socio-demographics, their attitudes and experiences were similar. P-a-p organisations (AGs) enhance production-related individual benefits, while p-a-c organisations foster positive experiences around consumption activities. AG continuation is driven by the experienced health and food-related benefits, while CSAs rely on the communal and organisational involvement of their members. While AG members focus on individual benefits, CSA members strive to be part of a food system change, using their communal structures to create a social movement. This demonstrates the wide range and potential of food prosumption in fostering diverse forms of engagement, offering insights into its potential for sustaining participation and contributing to alternative economic models. Full article

Energy storage (ES) units are vital for the reliable and economical operation of the power system with a high penetration of renewable distributed generators (DGs). Due to ES’s high investment costs and long payback period, energy management with shared ESs becomes a suitable choice for the demand side. This work investigates the sharing mechanism of ES units for low-voltage (LV) energy prosumer (EP) communities, in which energy interactions of multiple styles among the EPs are enabled, and the aggregated ES dispatch center (AESDC) is established as a special energy service provider to facilitate the scheduling and marketing mechanism. A shared ES operation framework considering multiple EP communities is established, in which both the energy scheduling and cost allocation methods are studied. Then a shared ES model and energy marketing scheme for multiple communities based on the leader–follower game is proposed. The Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) condition is used to transform the double-layer model into a single-layer model, and then the large M method and PSO-HS algorithm are used to solve it, which improves convergence features in both speed and performance. On this basis, a cost allocation strategy based on the Owen value method is proposed to resolve the issues of benefit distribution fairness and user privacy under current situations. A case study simulation is carried out, and the results show that, with the ES scheduling strategy shared by multiple renewable communities in the leader–follower game, the energy cost is reduced significantly, and all communities acquire benefits from shared ES operators and aggregated ES dispatch centers, which verifies the advantageous and economical features of the proposed framework and strategy. With the cost allocation strategy based on the Owen value method, the distribution results are rational and equitable both for the groups and individuals among the multiple EP communities. Comparing it with other algorithms, the presented PSO-HS algorithm demonstrates better features in computing speed and convergence. Therefore, the proposed mechanism can be implemented in multiple scenarios on the demand side. Full article

The decarbonization of the electricity grid is one of the actions that can help reduce fossil fuel emissions, and thus their impact on global warming in the future. This decarbonization will be achieved mainly through the integration and widespread diffusion of renewable power sources. This is also going to be supported by the shift from the paradigm of production–transmission–distribution, where electricity production oversees large-size power plants, to renewable-based distributed/diffused production, where electricity is generated very close or even by the same (group of) user(s) (or prosumers in the latter case). The number of mid-/small-size installations based on renewable energy technologies will therefore increase substantially, and the related renewable generation will be dominant against that from large-size power plants. Unfortunately, this will very likely reduce the reliability of the grid, unless appropriate countermeasures are taken/implemented, hopefully at the same time that the paradigm shift is being achieved. To this aim, it is important to identify the anomalies and main fault causes that might possibly affect some of the central renewable (wind, PV, hydrogen) and ancillary technologies that will be used to establish future renewable-based power systems. Accordingly, this paper presents a literature survey, also extending the focus to related datasets that can be used for deeper investigation. It is highlighted that the gaps mainly refer to a lack of a common taxonomy that prevents the establishment of structured knowledge in the scope of renewable-based power systems, a lack of contributions to anomalies/faults specific to wind turbines, and a lack of datasets related to electrolyzers, fuel cells, DC/x conversion, and monitoring and communication systems. Further, in the case of monitoring and communication systems, the scientific literature is both very dated, therefore not considering possible new aspects that would be currently worthy of investigation, and not oriented toward the particular domain addressed, thus considering peculiar aspects that are left out. Full article

The notion of prosumers, people who create and consume energy, has emerged in the energy sector as a result of the fast integration of renewable energy sources and advances in digital technology. Platforms for peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading have come to light as viable ways to allow prosumers to conduct direct energy transactions within small groups. Existing P2P trading models, however, frequently lack an optimized approach to maximize the advantages for prosumers. In this article, we provide a novel six-segment strategy (SSS) that is intended to increase prosumers′ ability to maximize their benefits in P2P energy trading systems. Additionally, the SSS promotes prosumers′ active market engagement by supporting community-driven energy exchanges. Through extensive mathematical modeling, simulations, and case studies, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the six-segment strategy in enhancing the economic benefits of prosumers participating in P2P energy trading. The proposed optimization strategy holds the potential to revolutionize the energy landscape by promoting more sustainable and consumer-centric energy trading. The cost savings of 12.9% are distributed among prosumers by the SSS, which is an improvement compared with previously proposed strategies. Full article

Second-hand trading platforms are helpful to the recycling of resources. It is important to accelerate the construction of second-hand trading platforms and improve people’s willingness to buy second-hand goods. However, due to the uncertainty of second-hand goods, it is difficult to establish the trust between users and complete second-hand transactions. Nowadays, more and more platforms use community-based governance mechanisms to promote relationships between users. Taking the second-hand trading platform Xianyu as an example, this study explores the influence of three specific community-based mechanisms (interest group, feedback mechanism and dispute resolution mechanism) on trust and transaction intention from three dimensions of relational governance. This study compares the different effect between consumers and prosumers. Based on 721 valid questionnaires, a structural equation model was used to analyze the data. The results show that interest group, feedback mechanism and dispute resolution mechanism all have significant positive effects on trust in sellers and platforms. In addition, the impact of a dispute resolution mechanism on trust in sellers and platforms is higher for prosumers than for consumers. This study extends the previous research on community-based governance, contributes to the design of second-hand trading platforms and promotes more users to participate in recycling economy. Full article

The transition towards more sustainable energy management can be supported by the diffusion of energy communities, i.e., coalitions of prosumers that are willing to exchange the energy produced locally. The optimization of energy management requires the solution of a prosumer problem that can become impractical when the number of users increases. This paper presents a parallel approach, based on an edge computing architecture, which is suitable for large communities. The users are partitioned into groups whose proportions, in terms of producers and consumers, mirror the composition of the whole community. The prosumer problems for the different groups are first solved separately and in parallel by local edge nodes. Then, the solutions are combined by a central entity to redistribute the energy among the groups and minimize the exchange of energy with the external grid. A set of experiments show that the parallel approach, when compared with an approach that solves the optimization problem in a single stage, leads to a notable reduction of computing resources, and becomes feasible in large communities for which the single-stage approach is impossible. Moreover, the achieved solution is close to the optimal solution in terms of energy costs. Full article

Clearly and accurately communicating the economic, environmental, and social benefits of solar PV prosumerism poses significant challenges. Previous research shows that government policies and public engagement campaigns can positively impact solar prosumerism; however, little is known about the quality and accuracy of information exchanged between rooftop solar installers and potential prosumers. This study addresses part of this gap with a mixed methods approach. First, a multimodal discourse analysis of installation proposals from seven home solar installers in Madrid shows accurate and reasonable financial benefits alongside incongruent social and environmental benefits. Second, the calculated efficiency of the seven proposed solar installations is compared with the efficiency of four different PVSC solar arrays using actual load and generation profiles. The results show that (i) the high variability of actual household demand on the minute-by- minute level significantly decreases self-consumption rate and profitability in comparison with the rates estimated using hourly or monthly, and (ii) the grouping of households into solar communities should significantly increase self-consumption and profitability. Therefore, using minute by minute time series in home solar estimations would reveal an added value and social benefit that is commonly overlooked. We conclude with recommendations for future research and multimodal communication campaigns that balance benefits of individual prosumerism and community solar. Full article

There is an increased interest in the district-scale energy transition within interdisciplinary research community. Agent-based modelling presents a suitable approach to address variety of questions related to policies, technologies, processes, and the different stakeholder roles that can foster such transition. However, it is a largely complex and versatile methodology which hinders its broader uptake by researchers as well as improved results. This state-of-the-art review focuses on the application of agent-based modelling for exploring policy interventions that facilitate the decarbonisation (i.e., energy transition) of districts and neighbourhoods while considering stakeholders’ social characteristics and interactions. We systematically select and analyse peer-reviewed literature and discuss the key modelling aspects, such as model purpose, agents and decision-making logic, spatial and temporal aspects, and empirical grounding. The analysis reveals that the most established agent-based models’ focus on innovation diffusion (e.g., adoption of solar panels) and dissemination of energy-saving behaviour among a group of buildings in urban areas. We see a considerable gap in exploring the decisions and interactions of agents other than residential households, such as commercial and even industrial energy consumers (and prosumers). Moreover, measures such as building retrofits and conversion to district energy systems involve many stakeholders and complex interactions between them that up to now have hardly been represented in the agent-based modelling environment. Hence, this work contributes to better understanding and further improving the research on transition towards decarbonised society. Full article

Most renewable energy (RE) studies focus on technology readiness, environmental benefits and/or cost savings. The market permeation, viability and adoption of RE technologies such as micro hydropower (MHP), however, require the alignment of other interrelated factors, such as the socio-technical, institutional and political dimensions. This is particularly the case where the energy recovery potential in decentralised water networks is being explored as part of a wholesome sustainability strategy by and for individual and communal prosumers. This study employs a socio-technical approach to understand factors that influence the perceived viability and adoption of MHP in group water-energy schemes. Methods included a progressive literature review to formulate a conceptual framework for the implementation of MHP systems. The framework was validated using survey data from representative stakeholders from groups schemes in Ireland and Spain. These stakeholders were sampled and surveyed at the stage of considering the adoption of MHP in their water networks. The findings highlight the push–pull factors and discusses the opportunities and barriers to the adoption of MHP systems. It confirms that the market, institutional and policy context, cost and financial benefits, social support and collaborative services combine to influence the adoption of MHP technology. Thus, a framework for evaluating the socio-technical viability of MHP systems based on these more realistic integrated, multi-dimensional criteria is proposed. Full article

The European Union sets targets for the extensive use of renewable energy. Meanwhile, the energy production network is changing and transferring from the classic “producer to consumer” scheme to new operation models, where a small consumer with local renewable energy systems becomes a producer–prosumer, an active energy consumer who is also an energy producer. This study evaluated a potential of Latvian households’ participation in the energy market as prosumers. The analysis was based on an informal prospective extrapolation data evaluation method, based on real historical data from the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, annual reports of distribution and transmission system operators, assessments, and the conclusions of relevant experts. In addition, the real performance of a photovoltaic (PV) system was evaluated to get information on the whole year’s energy balance, and to compare it with seasonal electricity price fluctuation. The Latvian electricity transmission system is able to accept about 800 MW of additional new renewable energy source (RES) capacity, so there is a great potential for prosumers. The biggest obstacle for a household’s involvement in the energy market is the lack of support mechanisms and relatively high cost of RES technologies. The results show that with the current dynamics of new microgenerator connections, Latvia will achieve the set goals regarding the involvement of prosumers in the achievement of RES goals only in the next century. In order to attract the public to energy production, the concept of energy community needs to be defined in Latvian legislation, a balanced peer trading mechanism needs to be developed for various RES self-consumption groups willing to sell surplus electricity, and tax policy conditions need to be reviewed for electricity transactions outside the NET (payment system), in order to fully ensure the rights of prosumers. Full article

In this paper, the application of demand-side flexibility to residential users and energy communities is discussed. From the H2020 project HOLISDER, it appears that selected Key Exploitable Results are not commercially interesting on their own as flexibility services but certainly are an add-on by cross-value stacking to regular energy services. For groups of prosumers, such as energy communities, cross-stacking can enlarge the awareness and commitment within the communities and, therefore, play an important role in the uptake of citizen communities as promoted by the EU Green Energy Package. Full article

Since the inherent intermittency and uncertainty of renewable energy resources complicates efficient Microgrid operations, a Demand Response (DR) scheme is implemented for customers in the grid to alter their power-usage patterns. However, for a real-time pricing model at the current DR, the automated decision on the energy price is not trustworthy because of artificial interferences to the power generation. As opposed to energy price, an operational cost-based prosumer scheduling approach would be able to protect the integrity of the power grid operations from deceptive market transactions and assist in robust energy management. To investigate the operational challenges associated with the costs and prosumers in the Microgrid, we focus on formulating the problem mathematically and designing approximation algorithms to solve the problem of how to optimally identify suppliers to minimize the total operational costs associated with providing electricity. We prove the hardness of the scheduling as one of the NP-Hard problems and propose polynomial time algorithms for approximating optimal solutions. With a proper resilience level for reliable power services, the scheduling algorithms include ways to construct not only robust supplier networks, but also group energy communities in terms of black start while minimizing the operational costs. A series of theoretical performances and experimental evaluations also demonstrates the practical effectiveness of this scheduling model for the operations. Full article

Contrary to the rapid evolution experienced in the last decade of Information and Communication Technologies and particularly the Internet of Things, electric power distribution systems have remained exceptionally steady for a long time. Energy users are no longer passive actors; the prosumer is expected to be the primary agent in the Future Grid. Demand Side Management refers to the management of energy production and consumption at the demand side, and there seems to be an increasing concern about the scalability of Demand Side Management services. The creation of prosumer communities leveraging the Smart Grid to improve energy production and consumption patterns has been proposed in the literature, and several works concerned with scalability of Demand Side Management services group prosumers to improve Demand Side Management services scalability. In our previous work, we coin the term Social Internet of Energy to refer to the integration between devices, prosumers and groups of prosumers via social relationships. In this work, we develop an algorithm to coordinate the different clusters we create using the clustering method by load profile compatibility (instead of similarity). Our objective is to explore the possibilities of the cluster-by-compatibility heuristic we proposed in our previous work. We perform experiments using synthetic and real datasets. Results show that we can obtain a global reduction in Peak-to-Average Ratio with datasets containing up to 200 rosumers and creating up to 6 Prosumer Community Groups, and imply that those Prosumer Community Groups can perform load rescheduling semi-autonomously and in parallel with each other. Full article

Innovations in technical, financial, and social areas are crucial prerequisites for an effective and sustainable energy transition. In this context, the construction of a new energy structure and the motivation of the consumer towards a change in their consumption behaviours to balance demand with a volatile energy supply are important issues. At the same time, Consumer Stock Ownership Plans (CSOPs) in renewable energies sources (RESs) have proven to be an essential cornerstone in the overall success of energy transition. Indeed, when consumers acquire ownership in RES, they become prosumers, participating in the phase of production and distribution of energy. Prosumers provide benefits by (1) generating a part of the energy they consume, (2) reducing their overall expenditure for energy, and (3) receiving a second source of income from the sale of excess production. Supporting Consumer Co-Ownership in Renewable Energies (SCORE) is an ongoing Horizon 2020 project with the aim of overcoming the usage of energy from fossil sources in favour of RES, promoting the creation of energy communities (EC) and facilitating co-ownership of renewable energies (RE) for consumers. SCORE hereby particularly emphasises the inclusion of women, low-income households, and vulnerable groups affected by fuel poverty that are as a rule excluded from RE investments. In this framework, the main goal of the present study is to illustrate the general procedure and process of EC creation. In particular, this paper focuses on the description of the methodological approach in implementing the CSOP model which consists of three main phases: the identification and description of selected buildings (preparation phase), the preliminary and feasibility analysis phase, and finally the phase of target group involvement. SCORE first started in three pilot regions in Italy, Czech Republic, and Poland, and later, with the aim of extending the methodology, in various other cities across Europe. In this study, Italian pilot study sites were chosen as a case study to develop and test the methodology. Full article