Towards Fair Energy Communities: Integrating Storage, Sharing and Pricing Strategies

Abstract

This study employs a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming model to optimize energy transactions in an energy community. This research promotes energy sharing through grid and peer-to-peer transactions by incorporating energy storage systems. The article also integrates fairness metrics to evaluate economic equity. The case study examines households with varying equipment acquisition power, highlighting the impact of pricing structures on economic fairness. Analyzing optimal results, the study focused on a community of ten households, six of which are prosumers with PV and energy storage of different capacities. Results show that combining peer-to-peer transactions and high-capacity PV and storage can lead up to a 183% improvement in energy bills. On the other hand, members participating in energy sharing without PV and storage within the community only achieve ~13% improvement in their energy bill, clearly showing a disparity in cost savings linked to equipment capacity acquisition.