Agent Based Modelling of an Energy Community

Agent Based Modelling of an Energy Community

Innovation Type: Guideline (Decision support tool)

What is this innovation about?

Agent-based modelling is guideline, which helps in decision-making and design of energy communities, with the ability to model the emergent behaviour of various actors based on description of individual agents (who reactive behaviour can be characterised).
This work will result in a guideline, crafted using agent-based modeling, to shape energy communities. It will focus on modeling actors’ emergent behaviours to determine optimal community size, pricing, and composition. This approach will offer practical insights into the dynamics of energy community development.

What kind of challenges it will solve if deployed widely

“Energy communities” is a novel term altogether. In Europe, there are only a handful of existing energy communities. Furthermore, few energy communities are combined with Positive Energy Districts (PEDs). Their implementation and design are still a developing field. Agent-based modelling is a field, which is not yet integrated with traditional planning methods of energy communities.

Current methods tend to neglect accounting for emergent macro factors as their overall effect is hard to assume. With Agent-based modelling approach, the behaviour is easily adjustable (by allocating how certain factors affect one entity and looking at the interactions between entities) and multiple scenarios can be analysed. In other words, this guideline has the ability to show stakeholders the potential effect of design decisions affecting energy communities.

Prevailing calculations are done with assumptions of non-reactive behaviour. Agent-based approach will allow for analysing impacts of reactive behaviour of actors and thus allow for more accurate results and better understanding of complex behaviour.

The following users will find this innovation useful:

• Initiators of energy communities,
• Municipalities,
• Prosumers,
• Residents

How has syn.ikia project impacted the development of this solution/ process/ tool?

Syn.ikia project facilitated the Agent-based modelling which in turn aided energy community design process by:

• Providing a real-life operational demo case to try out the proof-of-concept
• Providing legislative and regulatory background for energy communities design and operation in EU
• Providing operational data for potential replication of solution in other environments
• Identifying stakeholders important for energy community design
• Providing contact and feedback from relevant stakeholders.

How can this innovation be used beyond syn.ikia project?

• Policy making
• Further development of business cases
• Further development of simulation models

Contact persons:
Ábel Magyari, ABUD
Oskar Mair am Tinkhof, SIR