Real-Time Management of Distributed Energy Sources in Energy Communities: A Cooperative Multi-Agent DQN Control Framework

In 2024, the European Commission confirmed that the residential sector is responsible for 40% of total energy consumption in the EU and for 36% of greenhouse gas emissions, while 75% of buildings are still energy-inefficient. To cope with the climate crisis and to achieve the EU objectives of union climate neutrality, gas emission reduction and decarbonization, energy management systems of residential houses and energy optimization techniques are key aspects to investigate. In this context, this work focuses on the real-time energy optimization of energy communities whose customers cooperate to satisfy both the energy community’s and customers’ objectives. In particular, this work addresses the real-time energy management of an energy community composed of consumers and prosumers by proposing a cooperative multi-objective and multi-agent DQN control framework that takes into account the following: (a) the satisfaction of customers’ load demand, (b) the maximization of individual and collective self-consumption under fair energy sharing policies, (c) the management of the charging process of energy storage systems, (d) the efficient use of renewable energy sources, and (e) the guarantee of customer privacy. Simulation results have confirmed that an efficient scheduling of the available sources in a well-dimensioned energy community—in terms of load demand, renewable energy production and energy storage systems—meets the listed objectives, improves the flexibility of the energy community network, and reduces Grid usage.