arXiv subjects

Alejandro Pena-Bello

Publications and source records attributed to Alejandro Pena-Bello.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Techno-Economic Case Study of a Rural Local Electricity Community in Switzerland

Local Electricity Communities (communaut\'es \'electriques locales, CEL) will become operational in Switzerland in 2026, allowing prosumers, consumers, and storage operators within the same municipality and distribution system operator (DSO) area to exchange electricity over the public grid with reduced distribution tariffs. This report examines a rural Swiss case study to explore the techno-economic implications of CELs for both participants and the local DSO. The findings indicate that CELs can enhance the local use of renewable generation, particularly photovoltaics, and offer modest financial gains, with outcomes strongly shaped by community size, composition, and tariff design. Larger and more heterogeneous communities achieve better internal matching of supply and demand, though the overall incentive remains limited because the tariff reduction applies only to distribution charges. The study further shows that internal energy exchange is maximized when local PV generation covers roughly 1-2 times the community load. For DSOs, CELs reduce grid imports (27-46%), resulting in a substantial reduction in distribution tariff revenues (17-36%), necessitating regulatory adaptation. While centralized batteries provide economic value to members, their technical impact on the grid remains modest due to their small, economically optimized capacity. Larger centralized storage is shown to reduce transformer peak power, but risks increasing line loading, suggesting a need for careful sizing and placement.

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arXiv2025

A modeling framework to support the electrification of private transport in African cities: a case study of Addis Ababa

The electrification of road transport, as the predominant mode of transportation in Africa, represents a great opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on costly fuel imports. However, it introduces major challenges for local energy infrastructures, including the deployment of charging stations and the impact on often fragile electricity grids. Despite its importance, research on electric mobility planning in Africa remains limited, while existing planning tools rely on detailed local mobility data that is often unavailable, especially for privately owned passenger vehicles. In this study, we introduce a novel framework designed to support private vehicle electrification in data-scarce regions and apply it to Addis Ababa, simulating the mobility patterns and charging needs of 100,000 electric vehicles. Our analysis indicate that these vehicles generate a daily charging demand of approximately 350 MWh and emphasize the significant influence of the charging location on the spatial and temporal distribution of this demand. Notably, charging at public places can help smooth the charging demand throughout the day, mitigating peak charging loads on the electricity grid. We also estimate charging station requirements, finding that workplace charging requires approximately one charging point per three electric vehicles, while public charging requires only one per thirty. Finally, we demonstrate that photovoltaic energy can cover a substantial share of the charging needs, emphasizing the potential for renewable energy integration. This study lays the groundwork for electric mobility planning in Addis Ababa while offering a transferable framework for other African cities.

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arXiv2024

Assessing strategies to manage distributed photovoltaics in Swiss low-voltage networks: An analysis of curtailment, export tariffs, and resource sharing

The integration of photovoltaic systems poses several challenges for the distribution grid, mainly due to the infrastructure not being designed to handle the upstream flow and being dimensioned for consumption only, potentially leading to reliability and stability issues. This study investigates the use of capacity-based tariffs, export tariffs, and curtailment policies to reduce negative grid impacts without hampering PV deployment. We analyze the effect of such export tariffs on three typical Swiss low-voltage networks (rural, semi-urban, and urban), using power flow analysis to evaluate the power exchanges at the transformer station, as well as line overloading and voltage violations. Finally, a simple case of mutualization of resources is analyzed to assess its potential contribution to relieving network constraints and the economic costs of managing LV networks. We found that the tariff with capacity-based components on the export (CT export daily) severely penalizes PV penetration. This applies to other tariffs as well (e.g. IRR monthly, Curtailment 30, and DT variable) but to a lesser extent. However, the inclusion of curtailment at 50\% and 70\%, as well as mixed tariffs with capacity-based components at import and curtailment, allow for a high degree of PV installations in the three zones studied and help to mitigate the impact of PV on the distributed network.

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arXiv2023

Balancing DSO interests and PV system economics with alternative tariffs

Distributed rooftop photovoltaics (PV) is one of the pillars of the energy transition. However, the massive integration of distributed PV systems challenges the existing grid, with high amounts of PV injection possibly leading to over-voltage and reverse power flow, with line and transformer overloading, among other issues. Moreover, the increase in PV self-consumption and consequently the reduction of imported electricity poses a problem in recovering Transmission System Operators (TSOs) and Distribution System Operators (DSOs) grid costs, that until now have been directly linked to the amount of electricity consumed due to the volumetric nature of traditional tariffs. To investigate whether alternative tariffs could mitigate PV impacts at the distribution level without hampering PV development, we assess five electricity tariffs that could help the DSOs to recover the costs of maintaining the distribution grid. Additionally, we evaluate how such tariffs may affect private investment in storage and their impact on three types of low-voltage networks (i.e., urban, semi-urban, and rural). We found that tariffs with a capacity-based component promote further adoption of PV and storage. At the same time, they allow the DSOs to recover the grid cost without incurring relevant economic differences for the customer. However, all assessed tariffs were found to have a limited role in mitigating PV impacts at the distribution level.

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arXiv2021

Impact of Local Energy Markets on the Distribution Systems: A Comprehensive Review

In recent years extensive research has been conducted on the development of different models that enable energy trading between prosumers and consumers due to expected high integration of distributed energy resources. Some of the most researched mechanisms include Peer-to-Peer energy trading, Community Self-Consumption and Transactive Energy Models. Here, we present an exhaustive review of existing research around Local Energy Market integration into distribution systems, in particular benefits and challenges that the power grid can expect from integrating these models. We also present a detailed overview of methods that are used to integrate physical network constraints into the market mechanisms, their advantages, drawbacks, and scaling potential. We find that financial energy transactions do not directly reflect the physical energy flows imposed by the constraints of the installed electrical infrastructure. Therefore, ensuring the stable and reliable delivery of electricity, it is vital to understand the impact of these transactions on the grid infrastructure, e.g., impacts on the control, operation, and planning of electricity distribution systems.

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