Designing pocket and grid-friendly electricity communities

The dynamics and profitability of local electricity communities varies significantly depending on its configuration: the number and type of members, the percentage of members with generation capabilities (PV), the percentage of members with storage systems (batteries), and the behaviour of these members also plays an important role. 

In this challenge, participants will try to find the best mix of the aforementioned characteristics, propose load shifting and battery scheduling to obtain the highest possible savings while maintaining grid-friendly behaviour (avoiding peaks, considering power import/export constraints, etc.).

In Switzerland there is legislation in place that enables the creation of different types of local electricity communities: ZEVs, vZEVs, LEGs. 

The hope is to make distributed generation (mostly from PV) more efficient, but in reality these communities have little to no effect (i.e. little internal trading/sharing of electricity), or in the worse case, result in non grid-friendly behaviour (high aggregated peak loads and peak exports). 

Finding a methodology for identifying beneficial vZEV designs (beneficial for members of vZEV and for the grid/DSO) would help DSOs in the creation and operation of these communities, and ultimately benefit the energy transition.

• Smart meter profiles and metadata necessary for load shifting (technologies available, use windows)
• PV generation profiles

• Data analysis & modeling
• Some concepts of optimization (decision-making under constraints)
• Energy systems knowledge would be helpful but not strictly necessary