THE ROLE OF INVESTMENTS IN RENEWABLES AND ENERGY COMMUNITIES IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are spreading under the pressure of climate change mitigation plans and the framework, recognised as the most suitable to exploit DER diffusion, is the Energy Community (EC). Understanding the role of energy companies, especially Aggregators, in this context, is still an open topic, as it is not clear how they can support members in the aggregation process and how they create value through their business. The aim of the study is therefore to revise whatever is currently present in the research agenda through a systematic literature review, identifying the major hindrances to the EC creation process and if an Aggregator could usefully support communities’ establishment and management. To overcome these barriers, a proper Business Model is suggested, pointing out which are the conditions for the Aggregator’s investment to be financially sustainable, taking into account public incentives, geographic asymmetries, the energy sector cost of capital, and uncertainty in electricity prices. In conclusion, some topics inherent to Aggregator’s activity in the electricity markets have been assessed. Firstly, the assessment of leading machine learning techniques to tackle price forecasting, especially in the more volatile balancing markets. On the other hand, a battery optimization model has been developed to understand the best bidding strategies and the financial viability of this technology.