As distribution grids are made to accommodate significant amounts of renewable energy resources, the power system evolves from a classical producer-consumer scheme to a new one that includes individual prosumers or energy communities. This article contributes to the exploration of the solution to the dilemma of whether to be a distributed prosumer or an energy community prosumer by comparing the profitability of these two business models. To achieve this goal, a high-resolution methodology is created for measuring economic performance via proposed indices under different development scenarios of renewable proliferation and various network configurations. The developed methodology considers today’s electricity billing and renewable support scheme net metering. The results indicate that, first, the energy community is a more profitable framework than the individual distributed prosumer: avoided costs for energy community are, on average, 20% higher than for the individual, resulting in a payback period of the energy community that is about two times shorter than for owners of rooftop installations. Such promising results should encourage ordinary consumers to be members of energy communities. Second, the energy losses in the power distribution system are slightly higher for the case of energy communities rather than individual prosumers, yet the difference is insignificant, about 0.2%. Third, regulatory barriers shall be removed to enable participation of Latvian prosumers and distribution system operators to the energy communities, as it will benefit all the stakeholders and facilitate economically efficient energy transition. The results of this study could be adopted by decision-makers, such as government agencies, companies, and solar and wind turbine owners.

This article analyses the influence of supporting scheme variants on the profitability of a projected investment of residential photovoltaic systems. The focus of the paper lies in evaluating the feasibility for the power system of solar power generation technologies to achieve a balance between energy generation and support costs in a more efficient way. The case study is based on a year-long time series of examples with an hourly resolution of electricity prices from the Nord Pool power market, in addition to the power demand and solar generation of Latvian prosumers. Electric energy generation and the consumption of big data from more than 100 clients were collected. Based on these data, we predict the processes for the next 25 years, and we estimate economic indicators using a detailed description of the net metering billing system and the Monte-Carlo method. A recommendation to change the current net system to a superior one, taking into account the market cost of energy, concludes the paper.

The number of electric vehicles (EV) in the world has been increasing and is gaining momentum. The large-scale use of EVs in public life has initiated the need to establish EV battery charging services within the power system. Currently, EVs serve as a transportation tool and also as a flexible load. This publication examines the possibility of the owner of an electric vehicle choosing a battery recharging point, as well as of the involvement of several decision makers in the selection of a charging schedule. This problem is important because we assume that a significant proportion of EVs mainly use two parking spaces, one located close to the place of residence and another close to the workplace. We accept and prove that a car charging station can be created by the employer (company) and implemented in the best interests of the employer and the employee (EV owner). For that, a coalition between the company and the EV owner has to be formed. To support rational decisions, this study solves the problem using the cooperative game theory and designs a payment distribution mechanism based on the Shapley value. The results obtained prove that the coalition is beneficial under different conditions, which depend on the capacity of the EV, the distance between the workplace and the place of residence, the difference in the electricity prices of the day, as well as the consumption of the company. In order to estimate the coalition’s gain, it is necessary to take into account the structure of the power tariff system for both the company and the EV owner. Furthermore, we prove that the presence of a coalition allows the company and the EV owner to reduce the annual fee for consumed power. The results of this analysis could be adopted by decision makers such as government agencies, companies, EV owners, and they are recommended for potential investors for the development of transport electrification and smart energy.

The electricity sector in Europe and in the world is undergoing rapid and profound changes. There is a sharp increase in the capacity of renewable energy sources, coal and nuclear power plants are being closed and new technologies are being introduced. Especially rapid changes are taking place in the energy systems of the Baltic States. Under these conditions, there is an emerging need for new planning tools particularly for the analysis of the power system properties in a long-term perspective. The main contribution of this article lies in the formulation and solution of optimization problems that arise when planning the development of power systems in the Baltic States. To solve this problem, it is necessary to use models of various power plants and make a number of assumptions, the justification of which requires the following actions: to briefly review the current situation of the production and demand of energy in the Baltic power systems; to conduct an overview of the Baltic interconnections and their development; to make forecasts of energy prices, water inflow, energy production and demand; to set and solve the problems of optimization of power plant operation modes; to demonstrate the possibility and limitations of the developed tools on the basis of real-life and forecast data. In this paper, a case study is performed using the main components of the overall modelling framework being developed. It focuses on the Baltic power systems in 2050 under the conditions of significant expansion in the installed capacity of renewable energy sources (RESs) and diminished fossil fuel power plant activity. The resulting electricity generation mix and trade balance with neighbouring countries is assessed, showing that even with significant RES expansion, the Baltic countries remain net importers and because of the intermittency of RESs, there are hours within the year when the demand cannot be met.

The paper is focused on economic feasibility analysis of battery energy storage providing load shifting to the end-user. Electro-chemical storage technology is considered, as it is envisioned to play an important role in future power systems by reducing costs, deferring investments and increasing reliability of system operation. In the study, cash-flows arising from battery investment and operation in a representative distribution grid are considered for a planning period of 33 years. Forecasting methodology based on Fourier transform for the hourly electricity market price is proposed and performed for a particular bidding area of the Nord Pool day-ahead market. Results of the case study demonstrate that with the current trends of market price and tariff structure of electricity paid by the end-users, investments in BESS may not be profitable and some additional incentives should be introduced.

Future energy markets are foreseen to integrate multiple entities located mainly at the distribution level of the grid so that consumers can participate in energy trading while acting as individual prosumers or by forming energy communities. To ensure the smooth integration of prosumers and satisfy the effective operation of the power distribution systems (PDSs), it is important to fundamentally assess their performance for different grid development scenarios. This paper aims to estimate and compare the hosting capacity (HC) thresholds and profitability for two alternatives: (a) when the PDS experiences rapid growth of scattered individual prosumers with photovoltaic (PV) installations and (b) when prosumers intend to formulate a medium-scale energy community, which is a single source located in one node. Maximization of the profits of decision-makers and maximization of the capacity of the PV generation were set as the two objectives for the optimization tasks. It has been analyzed how the physical topology of the distribution network can be harmonized with the underlying bidirectional power flows for each alternative while satisfying system constraints. A typical distribution test feeder is employed to estimate the energy loss and voltage variations in the PDS, as well as the profitability for energy producers, for various penetration levels of prosumers, in comparison to the base case with no PV generation. The results indicate that improvements in terms of profitability and reduction of energy losses can be achieved in both alternatives, as long as the penetration of PV systems does not reach a certain threshold, which can be chosen by decision-makers and is limited by the HC. Comparing the results of the simulation, EComs demonstrate higher HC vs. individual prosumers, both in terms of technical and economic priorities.