Bridging the gap between PV generation and demand: the role of energy storage and demand-side management in local energy markets

This work analyses different scenarios related to local energy communities for self-consumption, analysing the dynamics of the resulting local energy market when only distributed generation is available (through PVs) and comparing it to different cases in which local energy storage and demand-side management (DSM) is available. The objective is to highlight the necessity of energy storage systems and DSM elements in order to obtain benefits both for users and for the “electricity system”, in the form of reduced reliance on the external grid and increased self-consumption capabilities. This work is not focused on specific optimization nor scheduling algorithms for local energy markets, DSM, nor energy storage systems, and instead relies heavily on “analysing” different amounts of ESS and DSM in LECs of different sizes, and during different seasons. The results show that without ESS or DSM, the benefits of forming LECs are quite limited as the electricity trading volume is not “very high”.