Recoupled: A simulation tool for renewable energy communities coupling electric and thermal energies

Abstract

Renewable energy communities (RECs) are legal entities where citizens, small-to-medium en- terprises (SMEs) and local authorities join to manage cooperatively energy from renewable sources. Since the regulation requires to evaluate energy fluxes on the hour base, the operative control and performance assessment of these new energy hubs become complex and require the handling of data such as production from renewable energy sources (RES) and end user con- sumption, that are intrinsically affected by uncertainties. In this contribution, an optimization tool for the operational management of a REC is proposed. RECs can contain renewable energy technologies (photovoltaic or solar thermal panels, biofuel burners), electric, heating and cooling end users and coupling components (e.g., heat pumps). The tool can be used at the planning level to compare different REC configurations based on their performances, assuming optimal man- agement of the available technologies. In this paper, the tool is tested in the simulation of three case studies of collective self-consumption (that in Italy is a REC where all end users are in the same building), located at different latitudes of the Italian country.