Energy Community Measures Evaluation via Differential Evolution Optimization

Abstract

Energy communities are paving the way for new cooperation opportunities related to energy consumption and energy production. Individuals unite in energy communities to reduce the costs related to energy consumption. Although previous work has mainly focused on energy exchange inside the community. This work aims to investigate the Pareto-optimal solutions to the transformation of a historical district into an energy community. For energy efficiency and production measure calculation, a system dynamics model is developed. Multiobjective differential evolution optimization method is employed for the evaluation of energy efficiency and production measures with a focus on net present value, self-sufficiency, annual emission reduction, and specific heat consumption. The optimization target functions can be increased at a cost in net present value. Replacement of household appliances and windows enables significant energy demand reductions while maintaining positive net present value. Electricity production from photovoltaic panels offers an additional pathway to increase selfsufficiency share while maintaining positive net present value.

Keywords

• clean energy
• energy efficiency
• multi-objective
• pareto-optimal
• thermal storage
• renewable energy
• sustainability