Optimal management of energy communities considering electric mobility

Energy Communities (ECs) are emerging empowering consumers and creating new business opportunities for end consumers and for companies that will take the management of these communities. Considering the characteristics of the communities’ storage systems is key to balancing production and consumption in different periods of time. With an optimal management of the storage, it is also possible to take advantage of the volatile prices of electricity markets charging when the prices are low (or even negative) and discharge when the prices are high. This paper explores an optimal management approach that integrates day-ahead scheduling with real-time control to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of ECs operations. Considering day-ahead scheduling, two optimal functions will be presented namely the cost minimization and the self-consumption maximization. Concerning real-time control, the main aim is to follow the scheduling or, in other words, minimize the deviations. In the present method the deviations are measured mainly in the State-of-Charge of the storage systems. The use case (UC) involves an energy community comprising 20 participants, yielding very interesting results when compared to traditional control methods that aim to follow the scheduled production, or the energy imported from the main grid.