Renewable energy communities are catalysts of social innovation, the citizens’ engagement in energy actions, and the exploitation of local resources. Thus, this paper defines a model for analyzing and optimally sizing energy systems serving renewable energy communities. Then, the proposed and replicable model was tailored to the economic feasibility analysis of a renewable energy community in the municipality of Tirano (Northern Italy). An energy audit was carried out to identify the electricity production and consumption within the perimeter of the primary substation and the thermal energy demand of the existing district heating network. The technical features of the energy conversion systems serving the renewable energy community were determined: an organic Rankine cycle biomass-based cogeneration plant, a mini-hydro plant, and a distributed photovoltaic system. Moreover, several different scenarios have been identified, in terms of cogeneration operating mode, photovoltaic penetration, and thermal energy economic value. The results show that, moving from 4.22 MW to 5.22 MW of photovoltaic peak power, the annual renewable electricity production increases by 10.1%. In particular, the simple pay back ranges between 4.90 and 4.98 years and the net present value between EUR 12.4 and 13.3 M for CHP operating at full power mode, considering that thermal energy available from the cogeneration unit is sold at EUR 49.2/MWh. These outcomes demonstrate the economic feasibility of wood-biomass-based renewable energy communities, which may help to enlarge the contribution of renewable technologies other than photovoltaic.

The complexity of a smart grid with a high share of renewable energy resources introduces several issues in testing power equipment and controls. In this context, real-time simulation and Hardware in the Loop (HIL) techniques can tackle these problems that are typical for power system testing. However, implementing a convoluted HIL setup in a single infrastructure can be physically impossible or can increase the time required to test a smart grid application in detail. This paper introduces the Joint Test Facility for Smart Energy Networks with Distributed Energy Resources (JaNDER) that allows users to exchange data in real-time between two or more infrastructures. This tool enables the integration of infrastructures, exploiting the synergies between them, and creating a virtual infrastructure that can perform more experiments using a combination of the resources installed in each infrastructure. In particular, JaNDER can extend a HIL setup. In order to validate this new testing concept, a coordinated voltage controller has been tested in a Controller HIL setup where JaNDER was used to interact with an actual On Load Tap Changer (OLTC) controller located in a remote infrastructure. The results show that the latency introduced by JaNDER is not critical; hence, under certain circumstances, it can be used to expand the real-time testing without affecting the stability of the experiment.