Aggregation of Households in Community Energy Systems: An Analysis from Actors’ and Market Perspectives

Seyedfarzad Sarfarazi, Marc Deissenroth-Uhrig and Valentin Bertsch ()
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Seyedfarzad Sarfarazi: Department of Energy Systems Analysis, Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Curiestraße 4, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany
Marc Deissenroth-Uhrig: School of Engineering, University of Applied Sciences Saarbrücken (HTW SAAR), Goebenstr. 40, 66117 Saarbrücken, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-37

Abstract: In decentralized energy systems, electricity generated and flexibility offered by households can be organized in the form of community energy systems. Business models, which enable this aggregation at the community level, will impact on the involved actors and the electricity market. For the case of Germany, in this paper different aggregation scenarios are analyzed from the perspective of actors and the market. The main components in these scenarios are the Community Energy Storage (CES) technology, the electricity tariff structure, and the aggregation goal. For this evaluation, a bottom-up community energy system model is presented, in which the households and retailer are the key actors. In our model, we distinguish between the households with inflexible electricity load and the flexible households that own a heat pump or Photovoltaic (PV) storage systems. By using a game-theoretic approach and modeling the interaction between the retailer and households as a Stackelberg game, a community real-time pricing structure is derived. To find the solution of the modeled Stackelberg game, a genetic algorithm is implemented. To analyze the impact of the aggregation scenarios on the electricity market, a “Market Alignment Indicator” is proposed. The results show that under the considered regulatory framework, the deployment of a CES can increase the retailer’s operational profits while improving the alignment of the community energy system with the signals from the electricity market. Depending on the aggregation goal of the retailer, the implementation of community real-time pricing could lead to a similar impact. Moreover, such a tariff structure can lead to financial benefits for flexible households.

Keywords: decentralized energy system; energy community; community energy storage; community energy system; game-theory; Stackelberg (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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