Towards a Balanced Energy Community. Matching Energy Supply and Demand Curves. Ways of Governance

Abstract

Energy Communities (EC) are a core element in any energy transition policy. They increase the security supply, allow for a decentralized distribution and reduce consumption, thus delivering environmental and social benefits. The Clean Energy Package (CEP), adopted by the European Commission in 2019, paved the way for the recognition and support of EC within the European context. This paper focuses on the ongoing urban regeneration of Besòs, a neighbourhood located in Barcelona, Spain. And it does so by framing the intervention within the European energy policies, analysing how the EU directives have been only partially transposed to the Spanish context and, lastly, by testing a potential EC that has not been considered so far in the urban regeneration program. An hourly consumption, iterative graphic analysis was utilised to test the most efficient combination of different sizes of communities and renewable energy generation (wind and solar). It was concluded that 64.58% of self-consumption could be achieved. However, by implementing simple behaviour change measures, 90.15% of the energy demand could be self-generated. Furthermore, two potential pathways for governance, which consider ownership and investment possibilities, are also discussed in the paper.