Research from Austria explores if participation in multiple renewable energy communities under new grid tariffs with varying costs functions can incentivize prosumers to undertake additional investments in flexibility.
A power-based grid tariff featuring a linearly-increasing cost function can encourage prosumers participating in renewable energy communities to invest more in flexibility, according to new research.
A research team from Technische Universität Wien has explored how grid tariff design affects the flexibility investment decisions of prosumers participating in renewable energy communities.
The paper explains that while renewable energy communities offer flexibility potential, current grid tariff design disincentivises grid-friendly behaviours with almost all grid tariff designs in countries that host renewable energy communities offering no incentives to invest in flexibility and reduce peak load.
The research team developed a tailored linear optimization model that explored the case of a prosumer who owns a PV system and invests in a battery storage system and participates in one or multiple renewable energy communities by analyzing different grid tariff designs from 2023 to 2040. The tariff designs were analyzed using Austria, the first EU country to implement participation in multiple renewable energy communities, as the case study.
