Community-centric distributed energy resources for energy justice and decarbonization in dense urban regions

Abstract

Low-to-moderate income (LMI) households suffer from higher energy cost burden as they spend a larger portion of their income on electricity bills than higher-income households due to factors including limited access to renewable energy. Although distributed energy resources (DERs) can be owned by individuals, supposedly enabling energy justice, reality shows otherwise since it requires capital investment and property ownership. To mitigate these barriers, the paper proposes “Community Energy Cells” (CECs) which consists of a group of DERs and controllable loads in proximity, represented by a Cell Aggregator (CA) as a single controllable entity. CECs can operate independently during disruptions, deploy renewable energy to LMI households, and provide multiple value streams for their DERs, including the option to aggregate and sell in the wholesale energy market. A financial case study using National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) System Advisory Model (SAM) was performed focusing on select buildings in West Harlem, New York City, with approximate 2.5 MW solar and 15 MW storage potentials. Considering that their CA benefits from investment tax credits, and the costs including installation and electricity purchase, it has a net present value of over $2 M, an internal rate of return of 35 % after 25 years, and sufficient cash flow to cover debt service. These returns are sensitive to key values: battery price and committed capacity for incentive programs for DERs and loads. The realization of CEC has interdisciplinary challenges that the paper elaborates on. Nevertheless, CEC is indispensable for tackling climate change and resiliency while attaining energy justice.