Energy communities' place in society : Energy communities' economical sustainability and possibilities to create benefits for a local power grid

Sammanfattning: To hasten the transition to reliance on renewable energy sources, energy communities could be part of the solution. An energy community, in this report, is defined as several residential houses that come together and share a virtual fuse for a bigger tariff subscription to the energy grid. The project aims to investigate the economical benefits of an energy community and what the power grid companies want in return to create a win-win situation for both. The first part of the results is produced through calculations on tariff costs based on the measured energy consumption for over 200 houses in different power grid areas in Sweden. The other builds on interviews with different power grid companies. The results show that the energy community saves around 60% of tariff costs. Benefits for the grid companies could be postponed expansion, behavioral changes, effectively utilized local production and storage, and increased knowledge. This project shows that it’s economically beneficial for members of an energy community with today’s tariffs at the expense of the grid companies. If the community invest in PV systems and battery storage as well as behavioral change of energy consumption, it may create a win-win situation.