Local Energy Exchange Market for Community Off-Grid Microgrids: Case Study Los Molinos del Rio Aguas

Abstract

The energy transition to renewable energy in a democratic way is directly connected to the development of energy communities and community microgrids. Los Molinos del Rio Aguas (LMRA), an ecological community in the south of Spain, offers a promising case study for an off-grid community-owned microgrid. In this paper, the interconnection of autonomous solar home systems is proposed with the addition of community assets in order to create an off-grid community microgrid that is financially beneficial for the community. Based on this scenario, a Local Energy Market (LEM) based on Distributed Ledger (DL) technologies is implemented in order to foster the energy exchange and contribute to the social welfare of the community. The results provide a win-win scenario for the community and provides an example of an off-grid community microgrid in combination with a LEM that takes into consideration the social aspect of the community.