Utilising the potential of demand side flexibility of an energy community for increasing the hosting capacity of distribution grids

The conducted study evaluates the interoperability between prosumer oriented self-consumption and grid operator oriented community level provision of grid services such as load-shifting and peak-shaving by the prosumers of an energy community. The study considers the inherent motivation of households to perform self-consumption, however when a household has opted for performing a grid service, the grid service is prioritised. The impact of performing such a community level grid service on individual household daily self-consumption and daily self-sufficiency is investigated, compared and assessed at the PCC of the energy community. The conducted study models an energy community based on an actual testing grid setup to increase the scalability of the approach. Type days are used for analysing the potential of load-shifting or peak-shaving in sunny, cloudy and passage of cloud conditions. Furthermore, varying shares of participation in the grid services provision are taken into consideration to account for the varying priorities of households in the energy community. The results show in some cases approximately 50% reduction in peak load through grid service provision with only a minor impact on the individual household degree of daily self-consumption and a comparatively significant up to a 40%pt. deviation in the individual household daily self-sufficiency.