Analysis of the Concepts of Self-Sufficiency of Renewable Energy Sources of the Local Energy Community of Luče, Slovenia

Abstract

Energy communities play a vital role in energy transition as nations strive to reach climate goals and integrate renewable energy into the energy mix. The factors that influence the self-sufficiency of energy communities are battery storage, weather variables, i.e., global horizontal irradiance, cloud cover, etc., and scenarios regarding the size of the energy community were analyzed in the COMPILE project using the energy community of Luče, Slovenia as a case study. These factors were quantified using the key performance indicators of selfsufficiency level and self-consumption level. It was found that battery storage of the individual buildings did not improve their energy self-sufficiency whereas buildings without batteries had self-sufficiency levels 11.8% greater than or equal to the buildings with batteries on average. Global horizontal irradiance and temperature were found to have a greater impact on selfsufficiency than rain and cloud cover, and high consumption buildings decreased the self-sufficiency level by up to 43%.

Trends in Locally Balanced Energy Systems without the Use of Fossil Fuels: A Review

“…In recent years, several pilot systems of self-balanced areas have been implemented in the European Union. The first of them is the COMPILE pilot system in Luče, Slovenia, developed under the EU research and innovation program "Horizon 2020" [104]. The power grid in this town is characterized by an emergency and unstable connection to the medium-voltage grid, which resulted in frequent electricity supplies.…”