Real-time energy sharing

Energy communities are a relatively new concept in energy sector which encourage citizens to cooperate in energy sector related activity. Participation is open and democratic, while the main goal is to provide benefit to the members of the local community. Energy community (EC) represent a group of individuals and small enterprises with the common goal of enabling and using energy services as energy generation, consumption, storage, aggregation, etc.
In Clean Energy for all Europeans measures package, European Commission presented legal framework in which citizens are placed in the center of the energy transition. The role of community energy ownership is recognized in order to reach climate and energy goals. New definitions for Renewable Energy Community (REC) and Citizen Energy Community (CEC) are given in the Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II) and the Internal Electricity Market Directive (IEMD). With these supportive legal framework, citizens are strongly motivated to move from passive consumers to active participants in the energy transition.

Photovoltaic systems convert the sun’s energy into electricity using solar panels and a DC/AC converter. The electricity produced in this way is variable and unstable due to large fluctuations in the intensity of solar radiation, so it is very difficult to balance it with electricity consumption. To use as much of the produced electricity as possible at the place of production (locally), new opportunities have emerged for community members (e.g. households, small and medium-sized enterprises, public institutions, etc.) who can share this energy. Members can get more affordable prices for electricity from the community than from a traditional supplier due to elimination of almost all network fees and electricity transmission fees.

The main goal is to provide a Platform for Real-Time Solar Energy Communities in which real-time power flows and related electricity prices will be accessible to the end users. Through our platform real-time energy sharing, an overview of available energy from different sources (traditional energy suppliers and integrated solar power plants) with related prices will be available. This will result in the usage of green energy on the spot, reducing costs for energy community members. The solar power plant would become more investment appealing, and in the long term result in a decrease of CO2 emissions, a positive effect on the climate, and a higher level of air quality.
Key issue is the lack of information on real time power flows. Concrete actions for this problem involve development of the Smart Meter WIFI Reader for the metering data retrieval in real time, development of a prosumer management interface and the development of dynamic energy sharing models.

The regulatory framework of energy communities in Croatia is mostly a translation of laws and directives of the European Union.
REC and CEC are defined as a legal entity whose participation is open and voluntary. The main goal is the environmental, economic and social welfare of the local community, not financial profit. The power delivered to the network is limited to 80% of the connected power. All members must be connected to the same MV/LV transformer station. The voting principle is one vote per one member. Members can sign a contract with different suppliers. The key for energy sharing is required by supplier, but it is not yet legally defined.