Optimising Diffuse Self-Consumption and Economic Benefits with Distributed Storage in Renewable Energy Communities.

According to the Italian regulation on energy communities, diffuse self-consumption refers to the collective and decentralized self-consumption of locally generated renewable energy (typically from residential solar PV) among several users within an energy community. This diffuse self-consumption corresponds to an economic incentive mechanism aimed at the dissemination and development of new generation plants in distribution networks, which is in addition to the social and environmental benefits of renewable generation. In general, the value associated with the economic incentive is penalized by the fact that the consumption of residential consumers is not easily synchronized with electricity production from renewable sources. For this reason, this paper addresses a technical-economic study of the potential use of distributed storage systems located at the users’ premises in the energy community, whose charging and discharging management is programmed according to available production and local energy demand. Through a case study on a residential building with several apartments and a centralized photovoltaic system, the infrastructure required for the development of the proposed system and the optimal management method are presented.