Photovoltaic energy sharing: Implementation and tests on a real collective self-consumption system

This research study analyses different types of photovoltaic (PV) energy sharing in a collective self-consumption (CSC) real-case in the Izarbel technological park in France. The analysis is carried out above all from the point of view of the self-consumption rate (SCR) and the savings. After explaining the emergence of the self-consumption concept for the integration of renewable energies, the study case is described. The PV energy is produced in ESTIA1 building and consumed in ESTIA1, 2 and 4 buildings. The main IoT components used to implement the CSC are smart meters and the Tecsol TICs; devices based on the LoRa protocol to retrieve production and consumption data. Then, the characteristics of PV energy sharing in France are explained, in particular the three possible types of energy sharing/allocation (static, dynamic by default and customised dynamic) and the structure of the electricity bill. Finally, the three types of sharing are compared in four scenarios (without and with a data centre, for low and high solar radiation). The results show that the dynamic allocations lead to increases of the SCR and that the customised dynamic sharing increases savings.