Abstract
The diffusion of distributed renewable energy production plants causes balancing issues of energy demand and supply to the national electric grid. To guarantee an efficient management of power networks, new flexibility measures (e.g., storage systems, Demand-Side Management) are necessary. In this context, consumers switch from passive to active agents, and become aware of their role in the electricity market due to their production and storage capabilities. The possibility to empower prosumers in a market environment generates new opportunities and challenges the operation of power systems. Recently, a proposal for a new design of energy systems has emerged, namely peer-to-peer (P2P) energy communities, in which prosumers can share locally and directly both electricity production and investments. Based on a consumer-centric and bottom-up approach, pure consumers, prosumers, local Authorities and energy utilities can collaborate in order to obtain economic, environmental and social benefits. Starting from a preliminary literature review, this paper provides an overview of the most common P2P community structures and investigates their potential techno-economic benefits, and related policy and regulatory implications. By properly addressing these latter issues and involving stakeholders and private actors’ participation, Governments and local Authorities can favor large diffusion of energy communities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
[37, p. 3995] define an energy collective “as a community of prosumers that operates in a collaborative manner, optimizing usage of resources”.
- 2.
Autarky refers to individuals’ aspirations to reach energy auto-sufficiency, reducing their dependence from other actors, such as utility companies, municipalities and neighbors [17].
References
European Commission: Climate action: Building a world we like, with climate we like. EU Publications (2014)
European Parliament: Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, Official Journal of the European Union, Brussels, Belgium (2018)
Bertolini, M., D’Alpaos, C., Moretto, M.: Do Smart Grids boost investments in domestic PV plants? Evidence from the Italian electricity market. Energy 149, 890–902 (2018)
D’Alpaos, C., Andreolli, F.: The economics of solar home systems: state of art and future challenges in local energy markets. Valori e Valutazioni 24, 77–96 (2020)
Andoni, M., Robua, V., Flynna, D., Simone Abramb, S., Geachc, D., Jenkinsd, D., McCallumd, P., Peacockd, A.: Blockchain technology in the energy sector: a systematic review of challenges and opportunities. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 100, 143–174 (2019)
Eltawil, M.A., Zhao, Z.: Grid-connected photovoltaic power systems: technical and potential problems — a review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 14, 112–129 (2010)
Hudson, R., Heilscher, G.: PV grid integration – system management issues and utility concerns. Energy Procedia 25, 82–92 (2012)
Hoppmann, J., Volland, J., Schmidt, T.S., Hoffmann, V.H.: The economic viability of battery storage for residential solar photovoltaic systems – a review and a simulation model. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 39, 1101–1118 (2014)
Luthander, R., Widén, J., Nilsson, D., Palm, J.: Photovoltaic self-consumption in buildings: a review. Appl. Energy 142, 80–94 (2015)
Eid, C., Codani, P., Perez, Y., Reneses, J., Hakvoort, R.: Managing electric flexibility from Distributed Energy Resources: a review of incentives for market design. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 64, 237–247 (2016)
Dulout, J., Anvari-Moghaddam, A., Luna, A., Jammes, B., Alonso, C., Guerrero, J.: Optimal sizing of a lithium battery energy storage system for grid-connected photovoltaic systems. In: International Conference on DC Microgrids (ICDCM 2017), Nuremberg, Germany (2017)
Madlener, R., Specht, J.M.: Business opportunities and the regulatory framework. Issues Env. Sc. Technol. 46, 296–326 (2019)
European Commission Task Force for Smart Grids: Evaluation of Smart Grid projects within the Smart Grid Task Force Expert Group 4 (EG4). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxemburg (2013)
Moretti, M., Djomo, S.N., Azadi, H., May, K., De Vos, K., Van Passel, S., Witters, N.: A systematic review of environmental and economic impacts of smart grids. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 68, 888–898 (2017)
Bigerna, S., Bollino, C.A., Polinori, P.: Renewable energy and market power in the italian electricity market. Energy J. 37, 123–144 (2016)
Kolokotsa, D.: The role of smart grids in the building sector. Energy Build. 116, 703–708 (2016)
Hahnel, U.J.J., Herberz, M., Pena-Bello, A., Parra, D., Brosch, T.: Becoming prosumer: Revealing trading preferences and decision-making strategies in peer-to-peer energy communities. Energy Policy 137, 111098 (2020)
Sousa, T., Soares, T., Pinson, P., Moret, F., Baroche, T., Sorin, E.: Peer-to-peer and community-based markets: a comprehensive review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 104, 367–378 (2019)
Parag, Y., Sovacool, B.K.: Electricity market design for the prosumer era. Nature Energy 1, 16032 (2016)
Lüth, A., Zepter, J.M., Del Granado, P.C., Egging, R.: Local electricity market designs for peer-to-peer trading: The role of battery flexibility. Appl. Energy 229, 1233–1243 (2018)
Morstyn, T., Farrell, N., Darby, S.J., McCulloh, M.D.: Using peer-to-peer energy-trading platforms to incentivize prosumers to form federated power plants. Nature Energy 3, 94–101 (2018)
Zhang, C., Wu, J., Long, C., Cheng, M.: Review of existing peer-to-peer energy trading projects. Energy Procedia 105, 2563–2568 (2017)
Long, C., Wu, J., Zhou, Y., Jenkins, N.: Peer-to-peer energy sharing through a two-stage aggregated battery control T in a community Microgrid. Appl. Energy 226, 261–276 (2018)
Nguyen, S., Peng, W., Sokolowski, P., Alahakoon, D., Yu, X.: Optimizing rooftop photovoltaic distributed generation with battery storage for peer-to-peer energy trading. Appl. Energy 228, 2567–2580 (2018)
Alam, M.R., St-Hilairea, M., Kunz, T.: Peer-to-peer energy trading among smart homes. Appl. Energy 238, 1434–1443 (2019)
Ramos, A., de Jonghe, C., Gómez, V., Belmans, R.: Realizing the smart grid’s potential: defining local markets for flexibility. Utilites Policy 40, 26–35 (2016)
Ottesen, S.Ø., Tomasgard, A., Fleten, S.E.: Prosumer bidding and scheduling in electricity markets. Energy 94, 828–843 (2016)
Bremdal, B.A., Olivella-Rosell, P., Rajasekharan, J., Ilieva, I.: Creating a local energy market. In: 24th International Conference on Electricity Distribution, Proceeding Journal 2017, pp. 2649–2652, Glasgow (2017)
Olivella-Rosell, P., Bullich-Massagué, E., Aragüés-Peñalba, M., Sumper, A., Ottesen, S.Ø., Vidal-Clos, J.A., et al.: Optimization problem for meeting distribution system operator requests in local flexibility markets with distributed energy resources. Appl. Energy 210, 881–895 (2018)
Fridgen, G., Kahlen, M., Ketter, W., Rieger, A., Thimmel, M.: One rate does not fit all: an empirical analysis of electricity tariffs for residential microgrids. Appl. Energy 210, 800–814 (2018)
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands; International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), World Bank: Policy Brief on Energy Sector Transformation: decentralized renewable energy for universal energy access. Publications of United Nations (2018). https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/17589PB24.pdf. Accessed 10 Jan 2020
Koliba, C., DeMenno, M., Brune, N., Zia, A.: The salience and complexity of building, regulating, and governing the smart grid: lessons from a statewide public–private partnership. Energy Policy 74, 243–252 (2014)
Granier, B., Kudo, H.: How are citizens involved in smart cities? analysing citizen participation in Japanese “Smart Communities”. Inf. Polity 21, 61–76 (2016)
Mey, F., Diesendorf, M., MacGill, I.: Can local government play a greater role for community renewable energy? a case study from Australia. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 21, 33–43 (2016)
Rosen, C., Madlener, R.: Regulatory options for local reserve energy markets: implications for prosumers, utilities, and other stakeholders. Energy J. 37(2), 39–51 (2016)
Espe, E., Potdar, V., Chang, E.: Prosumer communities and relationships in smart grids: a literature review. Evol. Future Dir. Energies 11, 2528 (2018)
Moret, F., Pinson, P.: Energy collectives: a community and fairness based approach to future electricity markets. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 34(5), 3994–4004 (2019)
European Commission: Exploratory Study of consumer issues in peer-to-peer platform markets (2017). https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/item-detail.cfm?&item_id=77704. Accessed 21 Jan 2020
European Commission: Clean Energy for all Europeans package. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg (2019). https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/clean-energy-all-europeans-package-completed-good-consumers-good-growth-and-jobs-and-good-planet-2019-may-22_en. Accessed 21 Dec 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
D’Alpaos, C., Andreolli, F. (2021). Renewable Energy Communities: The Challenge for New Policy and Regulatory Frameworks Design. In: Bevilacqua, C., Calabrò, F., Della Spina, L. (eds) New Metropolitan Perspectives. NMP 2020. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 178. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48279-4_47
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48279-4_47
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48278-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-48279-4
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)