Community managers key to wider adoption of energy communities
Researchers at Grenoble Ecole de Management in France claim that energy communities (EC) may need community managers or coordinators to maintain stability and manage risk.
“Given the complexity of sharing risk and value among members, the community manager should have financial and economics skills and should ideally work for several communities,” researcher Ibrahim Abada told pv magazine. “The manager could be part of a community but not necessarily. I see this role as a service that could be offered to communities.”
The research team said in “Risk-sharing in energy communities” – recently published in the European Journal of Operational Research – that they modeled and simulated PV-based energy communities facing production and remuneration risks.
“Our research indeed shows that only communities with members having similar risk preferences can be stable,” said Abada. “This indicates, that only small communities might prevail in the future. Otherwise, some members might find it too risky or not enough profitable to join. The research shows how designing specific insurances or contracts could help reassure the most risk-averse members so that they can join the project, which is a natural way to overcome the barriers. Here again, such instruments can be developed by specific agencies that could offer their products to many energy communities.”
The modeling was based on a stochastic cooperative game-theoretical approach, factoring in shared PV system costs and assuming operation under a net metering regime, with surplus power sold to the grid. Stochastic games involve decision-making under uncertainty, combining elements of skill and chance.
“Our model strives to account for the impact of individual and collective risk aversion on investment decisions in the solar community project and the possibility that, given their attitude toward risk, some members who are not satisfied with the share of the (random) value they receive from the project can always leave the community and eventually form a smaller one on their own,” said the scientists.
The modeling showed that risk remains a major barrier to energy community development, regardless of the complexities. It also showed that consumers have varying levels of risk aversion, particularly concerning fair gains-sharing within the community.
“This issue arises because members whose risk aversion is relatively weak may prefer pursuing individual investments over being constrained by the risk-taking limitations imposed by other community members,” the academics said. “This issue highlights the intricate dynamics that accompany risk aversion within ECs and underscores the need for thoughtful strategies to address these challenges and promote successful collaboration and investment within such communities.”
The academics also noted the importance of reassuring energy community members by mitigating risks or developing appropriate risk-sharing schemes. They said that they plan to evaluate risk sharing in energy communities equipped with storage and assess the impact of coordination costs and economies of scale on project stability.
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