Significant cost reduction of distributed energy resources (DER) combined with new customer's expectations in energy sharing and peer-to-peer trading have paved the way to a new range of disruptive business models to realise a more decentralised energy system. In this presentation, the technical & economic feasibility of local energy communities (LECs) from a double perspective (prosumer perspective and DSO perspective) is investigated.

On the one hand the economic opportunity for prosumers of joining a LEC will be assessed and, on the other hand, the impact that these LEC may induce to the distribution networks will be evaluated. In this presentation, local energy communities are still connected to the main grid. However, they might go off the market, possibly inducing significant revenues losses for existing utilities.

In order to assess this economic impact, several parameters as well as influencing factors must be taken into account, such as the regulatory framework, the technological assets (including their economical parameters) and the community design. The prosumers and their assets are forming a LEC at the distribution level, where power, heat and cold can be co-optimized, both in terms of sizing and dispatching to reach the lowest total expenditure costs over the studied time horizon.

Key takeaways:

• Decarbonising a community can be cheaper than working on an individual basis while creating social bounds at neighborhood level
• Community members and assets (electric vehicle, decentralised production, demand response) can work together to achieve greater efficiency at local level
• Regulation - especially distribution network tariff design - can create the right economic conditions for Local Energy Communities to develop
• While going off grid is now technically feasible, going off market might be the bigger risk for utilities
• Return of experience show that (some) utilities have understood that risk and are developing new skills & services to accompany rather than fight this trend

Speaker