Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition Europe - ECCE Europe 2026, Valencia (Spain). 14-18 September 2026
Summary:
Energy communities have become a key instrument for promoting the deployment of renewable energy sources and enhancing social impact. Nevertheless, a quantitative assessment of how alternative operational approaches affect energy cost allocation among members remains limited. This study compares two community operation approaches against an individual selfconsumption (ISC) baseline: aggregated community (AGC), in which surplus energy is redistributed through fixed sharing coefficients, and collective self-consumption (CSC), formulated as a linear optimization model that allocates shared energy according to customer demand conditions. The analysis uses annual consumption and photovoltaic generation data from 20 customers in Burguillos, Seville, and considers reduced and dynamic community prices. The results show that AGC and CSC reduce the annual energy cost by 7.45% and 9.26%, respectively, with respect to ISC. At the customer level, the community price affects how these savings are distributed between net-consumer and net-producer profiles. If surplus export compensation is not limited by the monthly grid import value, both approaches reach the same annual energy cost, equivalent to a 33.28% reduction.
Spanish layman's summary:
Este trabajo usa una comunidad energética de 20 consumidores en Burguillos, Sevilla, para comparar el caso individual con dos enfoques operativos: comunidad agregada y autoconsumo colectivo. Los resultados muestran reducciones del coste anual de 7,45%, 9,26% y 33,28% sin límites de compensación.
English layman's summary:
This study evaluates an energy community (EC) of 20 customers in Burguillos, Seville, comparing individual self-consumption with two operational approaches: aggregated community and collective self-consumption. Results show annual cost reductions of 7.45%, 9.26% and 33.28% without compensation limits.
Keywords: Collective self-consumption, energy communities, individual self-consumption, network customers, photovoltaic generation.
Publication date: 14-Sep-2026.
Citation:
H. Villanueva Panocca, M. Troncia, C. Santos-Pérez, J.P. Chaves, A. García-Cerrada, "Cost Allocation in an Energy Community: A Comparative Assessment of Operational Approaches", presented at Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition Europe - ECCE Europe 2026, Valencia, Spain, 14-18 September 2026
IIT-26-161C
