Smart coordination of buildings to incentivise grid flexibility provision: A virtual energy community perspective

Energy communities (ECs) play a crucial role in promoting the adoption of renewable energy resources and establishing local energy markets for sharing and trading energy among end-users (e.g., residential buildings) and prosumers (plus energy buildings). However, since end-users are connected to distribution grids, their energy transactions can sometimes lead to reversed power flows and potential power quality issues, such as over-voltage. This paper introduces the concept of Virtual Energy Communities (VECs) as a coordination mechanism designed to align the goals of ECs with the flexibility requirements of the distribution grid operator. The smart coordination of buildings employs a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to identify optimal VEC configurations that effectively manage potential trading activities to adhere to power grid constraints. The tool's performance is evaluated with a focus on voltage levels and voltage imbalance factors across various case studies. The results demonstrate that smart building coordination efficiently mitigates overvoltage and voltage imbalances by implementing VECs, all while causing minimal disruption to energy sharing opportunities. This is of significant importance, as providing grid flexibility on its own is not economically viable. Therefore, this coordination offers a valuable win-win solution for both ECs and grid flexibility.