Energy Sharing in Renewable Energy Communities: the Italian Case

Renewable energy communities (RECs) are recently established legal entities that allow European citizens, local authorities and SMEs to cooperate in the generation, supply and sharing of electrical energy from renewable energy sources. The competitiveness of RECs with respect to traditional market operators is not straightforward, and the investment in a new REC has to be carefully assessed. This paper presents a methodology that could support the decision process of citizens investing in a new REC. The main goal of the methodology is the optimization of the production portfolio of the community, considering the energy sources in the availability of community members, their different energy needs and tariffs. A model of community capable to evaluate energy flows among members is presented and it is adopted for the optimal investment evaluation. The optimal solution is the portfolio that maximises the net present value of the investment and it is obtained via a genetic algorithm. Applying the methodology to a case study, the economical feasibility of a REC in the Italian framework is investigated, considering four different energy strategies and two incentive policies.