A review of business models for small prosumers in a post-RES subsidy and post-priority dispatch world

Abstract

The widespread investments in renewable energy sources (RES) in the last 10 years has created a huge burden on the national RES funds due to the flaws in the initial RES support schemes and therefore scheme restoration was inevitable. In the meantime the situation at the energy market has changed radically, some RES technology costs reached grid parity and the development of other complementing technologies as battery storage and related information technology enabled and facilitated the creation of new business models for RES. In the H2020 project STORY, where the research focuses on the added value of energy storage, an overview of possible future business models for the stakeholders on the distribution system level with the emphasis on those that include battery storage solution has been done. In the paper the first RES support schemes and their design flaws are described. After that follows the description of new business models and technologies which will improve the viability and efficiency of the proposed business concepts in the near future. The paper concludes with a short introduction of the energy cooperatives, crowdfunding and possibility of additional income source by providing the ancillary services.