Exploring energy sharing mechanisms and prosumer integration in electrical and thermal energy communities

Energy communities have gained momentum across Europe, enabling citizens to participate in energy production, consumption, and distribution to support the energy transition. The 2018 European RED II directive has driven the rapid expansion of renewable energy communities and collective self-consumption, supported by regulations and incentives that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. Despite their potential, the complexity of energy communities presents challenges in understanding their aspects. A systematic literature review was conducted to clarify their characteristics, opportunities, and limitations within the European context. The findings reveal that most studies focus on social, political, and economic aspects, with limited attention to technological factors. Electricity communities, particularly photovoltaic systems, dominate the research landscape due to national incentives, while thermal energy communities remain underexplored. A key challenge for energy communities is ensuring equitable benefit distribution from shared energy. Italy, a pioneer in EU policy implementation, offers valuable insights into their practical application. In this thesis, an Italian energy community integrated with a district heating network was analyzed, demonstrating significant reductions in energy demand and emissions without additional investments. However, the virtual energy-sharing model complicates the tracking of individual prosumer benefits. To address this issue, four allocation algorithms were developed: a consumption-proportional key, a Pearson correlation-based key, a trend-based key, and a hybrid approach. A simulated community of eight users with real hourly energy profiles was used to assess the algorithms' effectiveness. Furthermore, the study proposes an innovative approach to retrofitting district heating substations into bidirectional systems, allowing prosumers to consume and share surplus thermal energy. A numerical model, validated through experimental tests, showed promising results in improving energy performance and increasing the useful energy coefficient. This research provides valuable insights into electrical and thermal energy sharing within communities, addressing regulatory and operational challenges and supporting the growth of thermal energy communities across Europe.