Implementation, statutory aspects and benefit sharing in an Energy Community

Renewable energy communities are a growing and extraordinarily multifaceted phenomenon which involves a range of possible activities around renewable energy (production, supply, distribution, sharing and consumption) collectively carried out by citizens, often in partnership with small and medium enterprises and local public authorities. Being a new technological solution in the world of energy, it is essential to have a clear understanding of what they consist of, who can be part of them and why they are important for achieving a sustainable future. This thesis work aims to deal with the issue of energy communities in their entirety, starting from basic aspects, then focusing on the topic of the statute and on how to define the criteria for dividing incomes within the community, given the different nature of the participants. These last two parts are interconnected since the benefit sharing is ruled by the Private law contract. The case study of the energy community of Monticello d’Alba will be studied, in its original configuration and in one characterized by the presence of two additional users, and obtained results will be reported. Two different algorithms will be analyzed: one based on the theory of cooperative games and one based on a more common theory of redistribution already applied in different realities. The experimental results shown were obtained by Team 23: a working group of which I was a part operating for Egea S.p.A., whose purpose was to deal with the issue of benefit sharing. The energy community of Monticello d'Alba, in both the configurations, will be tested in an optimized layout from the production point of view since all the involved plants have an optimal size. The thesis concludes with a parenthesis on the potential of Demand Side Management for energy communities, which is the key to achieve best performances of the whole community. The Appendix B consists in an Italian version of the thesis containing the main points. References to involved figures/tables are included. Since the thesis is focused on the Italian scenario, this has been done in order to give a better comprehension, especially with regard to the statutory aspect. For that chapter Appendix B contains additional figures showing how the main documents, needed in order to realize an energy community, are formulated.