An Energy Democracy Model for Energy Communities Based on the Prosumers’ Preferences and Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading

One of the new concepts in line with the development and decentralization of smart grids is energy democracy. Energy democracy means possible, easy, and non-discriminatory access to energy for all consumers. The presence of smart buildings in the smart grid as prosumers that can both produce and consume clean energy can contribute to the development of decentralization and decarbonization in electricity industry. An energy community includes a set of energy users as well as energy resources and energy consumption. Prosumers can participate in peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading through appropriate communication infrastructures and contribute to the energy supply of the energy community. In this paper, the problem of energy management of smart grids, including energy communities, was solved while promoting energy democracy for the presence of smart buildings in P2P energy trading and residential demand response programs. An energy democracy model for the set of energy users including prosumers and managers within energy communities was introduced according to the concept of users’ preferences. In this paper, prosumers were classified into three flexible, economy-oriented, and community-oriented categories according to their preferences. Also, managers of energy communities were classified into two categories according to their preferences: managers with an interactive approach and managers with a non-interactive approach. The problem was solved by the CPLEX method in GAMS software. The results showed that the proposed approach improved energy democracy in the smart grid.