Integration of Multiple Energy Communities: Transaction Prices, Reactive Power Control, and Ancillary Services

Energy communities are established to increase the local balance between production and consumption, allowing direct transactions between users who can function as consumers or producers through distributed generation (DG) [1]. They are expected to play a nonnegligible role in achieving the energy transition mandated by the Conference of Parties and the European Union (EU) Green Deal (e.g. [2–4]). Communities are also expected to facilitate the implementation of sector coupling solutions through electromobility, by providing cheaper solutions for electric vehicle (EV) charging and the exploitation of the flexibility services that can be offered. Community participants may include parking lots equipped with several EV-charging stations. These parking lots may be operated through optimization models/tools to exploit the storage capability of the vehicle batteries, especially if the charging stations are bidirectional. The current regulatory framework, including EU 2019/944 Electricity Market Directive and 2018/2001/EU Revised Renewable Energy Directive, allows for the presence of multiple communities in a single distribution network. This framework grants users the freedom to decide whether to join a community and independently choose their energy provider [5]. The presence of different providers with specific tariffs and DG power production costs affects transaction prices among community participants. The emerging regulations do encourage the participation of end-users, whether as either individuals or aggregated collectives, in both the energy market and ancillary services markets. For instance, the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks, and Environment (ARERA) has issued resolutions promoting the provision of local ancillary services by microgrids and energy communities, supporting the operation of distribution networks. These services involve qualified generation and storage units, reactive power compensation devices, and demand response techniques. In some cases, energy communities may also act as distribution system operators (DSOs), providing services to connected users and the transmission system operator (TSO). The chapter is structured as follows. Section 9.2 describes the proposed optimization model that considers the presence of multiple energy communities in the same distribution network with different energy providers. Section 9.3 focuses on calculating the limits for providing reactive power flexibility services. Section 9.4 reviews the support of energy communities for electro-mobility. Section 9.5 concludes the chapter and summarizes the key findings.