Smart energy systems for renewable energy communities: A comparative analysis of power-to-X strategies for improving energy self-consumption

Lorenzo Mario Pastore, Gianluigi Lo Basso, Guido Ricciardi and Livio de Santoli

Energy, 2023, vol. 280, issue C

Abstract: Renewable energy communities (RECs) represent the new scheme for promoting the distributed renewable generation, which must be managed to maximise the local energy self-consumption. The aim of this paper is to assess and discuss strengths and weaknesses of small-scale sector coupling strategies in residential RECs by means of a comparative analysis of their applications. Different power-to-X strategies have been applied to twenty-seven REC configurations. The systems have been separately simulated by means of the EnergyPLAN software. Power-to-heat strategy turns out to be the most cost-effective solution to integrate the RES excess, however, its potential often is not enough to fully accommodate it. Power-to-vehicle has low infrastructure costs, but its limit depends on the electric vehicle penetration and citizens’ participation. Exploiting the electric vehicle batteries is always more cost-effective than installing stationary batteries. The competitiveness of power-to-power is extremely linked to the REC electrification level. Power-to-gas is promising in high-RES excess conditions, but rarely represents the best solution due to current high electrolyser costs. The implementation of energy storage systems is crucial for improving the local self-consumption and the cross-sector integration is a better solution in energy, economic and environmental terms than focusing only on the electricity sector.

Keywords: Sector coupling; Integrated energy systems; Distributed energy systems; EnergyPLAN; Hydrogen; Heat pumps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223015992
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:280:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223015992

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.128205

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().