• Increase in the renewable energy self-consumption rate within the neighbourhood.
• Reduction of energy bills of the consumers through access to cheaper energy within the energy community at times when they consume while other members are exporting electricity.
• Increase of prosumers revenues through the selling of energy to other community members at a higher price than what is proposed by their aggregator.
• Integration of social and economic moral values that give prior access to cheap energy to some community members.

• What problem(s) does the case study aim to resolve? This case study aims to enable access to cheaper energy to the community members and to increase the revenues of the community prosumers. It also aims to create a real energy community that gathers around shared moral values that define their relationship to energy.
• What were the social objectives (if any)? Social objectives aimed to give prior access to cheap electricity to members that are in need, such as members exposed to energy poverty. Indeed, the community members included tertiary and residential buildings. The latter were given priority to have access to cheaper energy.
• What were the environmental objectives (if any)? The energy community increases its self-consumption rate, and thus increases its consumption of renewable energy.
• To what degree were participants actively involved in design or operation? In this use case, the 5 main members of the community worked together on the establishment of the community, by working together on the legal aspects, the moral values and the local energy market. At the beginning of the project, members gathered every month to define the principles of the energy community and participate together in events that promote the project.
• Was participation financially or socially incentivised or both? There was no financial or social incentive apart from the gains of buying and selling electricity within the community at a cheaper / higher price than their aggregator/supplier proposed respectively.
• What degree of demand response flexibility was provided? At the current stage of the project, flexibility is not implemented. However, with the integration of new members, and especially new prosumers, flexibility will be achieved through batteries owned by the members of the community when real-time monitoring of exports will show that the community consumes its solar production within the current time slot of 30 minutes.
• Provide images of, and participant quotes from the case study.

  • Yann Rozier, Climate & Transition Project Manager at the University Côte d’Azur: “This energy community allows the community members to engage together and to think about the way we can better consume electricity together. It allows us to implement moral values that define us and that enables residentials to benefit from cheaper energy produced by tertiary buildings, especially during week-ends when there are no tertiary activities. We hope this energy community is developing as an example that can be replicated in other places in France, and maybe abroad.”

The key lessons learned are about trust. An energy community cannot be successful if trust is not the backbone of the initiative. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to gain the trust of the members when proposing to join an energy community. This can be done by showing examples, by being transparent and by proposing simulations that demonstrate the benefits and difficulties that will arise from the energy community. Second, it was experienced that members want to build a community that actually represents their own values. As a result, an energy community should be built for and by the members, based on local considerations and specificities, and it is therefore necessary to propose economic mechanisms (such as market clearing algorithms or energy dispatch approaches) that reflect these values, such as giving priority to low income or fuel poor members. Finally, regular communication should be proposed to the community members. This enables them to feel involved in the community, and to trust the directions that are taken and to prevent any disagreements.

What outcomes are anticipated from the pilot? This pilot aims to showcase the possibility to have an advanced local energy community within the current legal framework in France. This will also result in a bill reduction for the consumers, and an increase in revenues for the producers. This energy community aims to pave the way for future energy communities with local energy markets.

What outcomes were delivered by the pilot? At this stage, the pilot is still on-going. Algorithms have been designed, members have actively engaged in the community, and financial trades will happen shortly.