A design framework for Citizen Energy Communities in Cities: exploring PV-storage synergies

This paper proposes an assessment framework for the deployment of citizen energy communities (CECs) in cities using meta-data assisted clustering techniques. It elaborates a top-down approach that aims at capturing the “built intelligence” at the city level in order to specify the number of CECs in a given city. Specific types of CECs are proposed and the main sources of meta-data to assist the assessment of CECs are identified. The paper also provides a case study for clarification. We focus on the electricity vector among the several energy carriers covering energy consumption needs in cities. The resulting CECs are supposed to function in grid-tied mode. Specific focus is given to photovoltaic systems (PVs) as the main source of renewable energy generation in CECs.