A value sharing method for heterogeneous energy communities archetypes

Area of Science:

• Renewable Energy Systems
• Energy Economics
• Smart Grids

Background:

• Energy communities (ECs) are emerging models for decentralized energy generation and consumption.
• Fair distribution of economic value within ECs is crucial for member engagement and system sustainability.
• Existing value sharing methods often lack a nuanced approach to individual member contributions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel value sharing (VS) method for energy communities.
• To ensure equitable distribution of economic surplus or deficit based on member-specific load-generation profiles.
• To develop a decision-making framework for optimizing EC strategy through a combined fairness and self-sufficiency objective.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel value sharing (VS) algorithm considering individual load-generation profiles.
• Quantified value distribution based on contributions to EC revenue (surplus) or costs (deficit).
• Employed the fairness index (FI) for comparative analysis of allocation methods and integrated it into an objective function with the self-sufficiency index.

Main Results:

• The proposed VS method demonstrated a high fairness index (FI) ranging from 0.81 to 1.
• Members contributing to EC revenue received a higher share, while those with high demand received a lower share.
• The integrated objective function provides a flexible strategy for ECs, balancing fairness and self-sufficiency.

Conclusions:

• The novel VS method offers a fair and efficient mechanism for distributing economic value in energy communities.
• The approach effectively incentivizes members to contribute positively to the EC's financial performance.
• The developed methodology supports strategic decision-making for enhancing both the economic viability and self-sufficiency of energy communities.