Methodology for designing an Energy Community and its application to the municipality of Vinalesa

Abstract

Energy communities represent a new energy management model for the use of local energy resources, in which different social actors participate in search of energy, environmental, social and economic benefits. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of concise guidelines in the literature dealing with the more technical aspects of energy communities. The aim of this article is presenting a methodology to support the design of new energy communities based on energetic, economic and environmental conditions in order to analyse their technical and economic viability. The methodology is supported by Homer Grid modelling software for simulating and optimising possible energy scenarios. This is better suited to energy communities connected to the grid, with renewable energy generation assets from local resources and with an equitable distribution of benefits for all members. The methodology has been applied to a case study in the village of Vinalesa, sizing the community's generation assets as well as the electricity tariff. Their implementation in the case study results in an installation of 870 kW of photovoltaic energy and capacity storage of 1.08 MWh in Lithium-Ion batteries that allows the residents of Vinalesa have additional savings of around 16.4% in their electricity bill.