Renewable energy communities: The challenge for new policy and regulatory frameworks design

Abstract

The diffusion of distributed renewable energy production plants causes balancing issues of energy demand and supply to the national electric grid. To guarantee an efficient management of power networks, new flexibility measures (e.g., storage systems, Demand-Side Management) are necessary. In this context, consumers switch from passive to active agents, and become aware of their role in the electricity market due to their production and storage capabilities. The possibility to empower prosumers in a market environment generates new opportunities and challenges the operation of power systems. Recently, a proposal for a new design of energy systems has emerged, namely peer-to-peer (P2P) energy communities, in which prosumers can share locally and directly both electricity production and investments. Based on a consumer-centric and bottom-up approach, pure consumers, prosumers, local Authorities and energy utilities can collaborate in order to obtain economic, environmental and social benefits. Starting from a preliminary literature review, this paper provides an overview of the most common P2P community structures and investigates their potential techno-economic benefits, and related policy and regulatory implications. By properly addressing these latter issues and involving stakeholders and private actors’ participation, Governments and local Authorities can favor large diffusion of energy communities.