Projects

The project focuses on the development and testing of a network-sensitive coordination system for energy communities. Using market mechanisms and automated trading strategies tailored to these mechanisms, flexible consumption and generation units of the community members are managed in such a way that they make the best possible use of existing distribution networks, and support the network operator in avoiding and eliminating bottleneck situations. By coordination within the community, the performance of the members is adjusted according to demand. In this way, the expected need for network expansion can be reduced without unduly restricting the behaviour of individual grid connection users. The interfaces to the network operator required for this are examined. It is also researched how many community members in a network segment are required, and at which locations. Determining the added value that communities can actually provide for the system allows for counteracting a loss of solidarity in the sharing of network costs. The contributions of this project to the further development of the state of the art and its implementation in practice are aimed at in the following areas: (i) development of the coordination mechanism based on the mechanism design theory, (ii) development of algorithmically supported, self-learning trading strategies for the participation in the mechanism, (iii) robustness of the system by solving conflicts of objectives and avoiding a "swinging up" of the system, (iv) testing of the developed components in simulation, laboratory and in the field with dedicated feedback loops between these activities, and (v) detailed quantification of system benefits to support the design of modified network use charges while avoiding de-solidarisation.