Erwin Franquet | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Enhancing Collective Self-Consumption through Water Storage Heater Flexibility

While Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Collective Self-Consumption (CSC) schemes have emerged as promising tools to accelerate renewable energy adoption and support the net-zero transition, their full potential can only be realised when complemented by demand-side flexibility that aligns consumption with renewable generation. Water storage heaters can function as distributed thermal storage, absorbing excess renewable energy at the community level. This work quantifies both the benefits of water storage heaters flexibility for energy consumers in a CSC community in France (such as energy bill reduction, increase of self-consumption), and the challenges related to the implementation and user acceptance. At the first stage, an annual simulation analysis is performed on a community of 41 households and a large solar PV plant, comparing a scenario without a CSC community, a scenario with a standard CSC community, and a scenario with a CSC community with flexibility from water storage heaters, which showed that an average benefit of 70euro/year per household can be achieved due to flexibility and an increase of 6% and 22% of solar PV community self-consumption and self-production respectively. In the second stage, we present the results of the real-world deployment in the community, analysing its technical performance and user reception, and examine the main factors shaping user engagement and satisfaction.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

Fairness of Energy Distribution Mechanisms in Collective Self-Consumption Schemes

In several European countries, regulatory frameworks now allow households to form energy communities and trade energy locally via local energy markets (LEMs). While multiple mechanisms exist to allocate locally produced energy among members, their fairness remains insufficiently understood despite energy justice being a key concern for communities. This paper first provides a thorough description of the collective self-consumption process in France, offering a real world framework for researchers. We then review the main types of fairness relevant to LEMs and identify appropriate indicators for each, including a new scalable indicator to evaluate meritocratic fairness. Using simulations across 250 randomly generated residential communities of 20 households, we assess and compare fairness across different LEM distribution mechanisms. Results show that average financial savings reach 12% with 40% PV uptake. Among the four widely used LEM mechanisms assessed, glass-filling with prioritization yields the highest egalitarian and min max fairness. Double auction and pro rata schemes promote meritocracy, while standard glass filling offers a strong balance across fairness objectives.

cs.CY↗