Impact of Non-Residential Users on the Energy Performance of Renewable Energy Communities Considering Clusterization of Consumptions

Elisa Veronese, Luca Lauton, Grazia Barchi, Alessandro Prada and Vincenzo Trovato ()
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Elisa Veronese: Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Luca Lauton: Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Grazia Barchi: Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Alessandro Prada: Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, via Mesiano 77, 38123 Trento, Italy
Vincenzo Trovato: Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, via Mesiano 77, 38123 Trento, Italy

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-18

Abstract: Renewable energy communities foster the users’ engagement in the energy transition, paving the way to the integration of distributed renewable energy sources. So far, the scientific literature has focused on residential users in energy communities, thus overlooking the opportunities for industrial and commercial members. This paper seeks to bridge this gap by extending the analysis to the role of non-residential users. The proposed methodology develops an effective clustering approach targeted to actual non-residential consumption profiles. It is based on the k-means algorithm and statistical characterization based on relevant probability density function curves. The employed clusterization procedure allows for effectively reducing a sample of 49 real industrial load profiles up to 11 typical consumption curves, whilst capturing all the relevant characteristics of the initial population. Furthermore, a peer-to-peer sharing strategy is developed accounting for distributed and shared storage. Three scenarios are considered to validate the model with different shares of non-residential users, and the results are then evaluated by means of shared energy, self-consumption, and self-sufficiency indices. Moreover, the results show that the integration of a large non-residential prosumer in a REC may increase the self-sufficiency of residential members by 8.2%, self-consumption by 4.4%, and the overall shared energy by 37.3%. Therefore, the residential community consistently benefits from the presence of non-residential users, with larger users inducing more pronounced effects.

Keywords: non-residential communities; renewable energy community; energy sharing; Battery Energy Storage System; Photovoltaic System; clustering (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: 2024
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