Dynamic Simulation Model of a Renewable Energy Community for Small Municipalities

The presented paper describes the dynamic simulation model developed to predict the real time operation of a Renewable Energy Community based on PV panels coupled with energy storage systems. The dynamic model is able to evaluate the self-consumed energy of the community as well as the energy delivered to the grid considering a real electric load of the community. The model is able to evaluate in detail the economic feasibility of the plant, according to a comprehensive economic analysis, based on the Italian regulation. TRNSYS software is used to model the included energy components. The model is applied to a suitable case study, the municipality of Foiano di Val Fortore, located in the south of Italy. The main results of the presented analysis highlight that the photovoltaic panels lead to a reduction of the primary energy consumption of the renewable energy community by 32%. Due to incentives the achieved simple payback is extremely low. In fact, when the energy storage system is not considered, the achieved simple payback is equal to 4.0 years. When the PV panels are coupled with the energy storage system, the simple payback reaches the value of 13.5 years.