The energy landscape is shifting away from fossil fuels towards more sustainable electricity sources, and from vertically integrated monopolies to unbundled and competitive markets. Energy markets have been historically designed around centralised sources, however renewable energy generation requires a different approach – integrating different decentralised sources, energy storage and strengthening linkages with the demand side.
The results of the BestRES project have been published on the European Commission’s Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS).
This paper reviews three aggregator business models that were conceived by commercial aggregators in different regulatory environments in Europe. On the theoretical side, the business models are simulated using a business economic optimisation model. The practical implementation is monitored and the aggregators’ implementation experiences are discussed. The paper identifies and documents how the business models can create value for the aggregators, their customers and for society in the different regulatory environments.
While solar PV generation is well-established on single-family houses, there is still a lack of installations on apartment buildings. To understand the effect of sharing distributed generation, we developed two energy sharing models, a welfare optimization, and a game theoretical (bi-level) model. We introduced two type of players, the owner of distributed generation (e.g. solar PV and energy storage) and the consumers. Furthermore, we included consumer preferences by multiple objectives such as emissions reduction and distributed generation in additions to cost in the model. We applied both models to a numerical example using data from the electricity market in Texas. The results showed that welfare is maximized in both models, but shared differently between the owner of the generation and the consumers. One exception is the bi-level model with uniform price auctions, which results in a reduction in system welfare to maximize owner revenues. Download the paper here.
Solar generation is one of the key technologies in decarbonizing and decentralizing the energy system. While solar PV on single-family houses is a well-established and integrated solution, there have been relatively few such installations on multi-unit apartment buildings so far. Also, with the rapid urbanization, cities – mostly with a high share of apartment buildings – are becoming the largest energy consumers globally. Hence, to address the energy-climate challenge innovative solutions have to be developed to make better use of distributed energy resources (DERs) in urban locations.
The Workshop on Business Models for Renewable Energy Aggregators was held as part of the BestRES project on 27th September 2016 in Brussels, Belgium. The aim was to present to stakeholders an overview of the existing business models for the aggregation of renewable energy sources identified by the consortium of BestRES project, the benefits from collaborating with aggregators, and the evaluation of regulatory, legal and technical barriers for deployment of the business models.
The 1st BestRES Workshop on Business Models for Renewable Energy Aggregators took place in Brussels, Belgium, on 27th September 2016. The presentations of the workshop are now available for download in this page.
Read the press release about the event here.
The workshop organized in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on 26th September 2017, had the aim to disseminate the project results related to the improved business models and the first steps for their implementation and, at the same time, to further support the cooperation with the IndustRE Consortium.
The workshop was organized in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on 26th September 2017. The presentations are available for download in this page.
Read the press release about the event here.
The workshop held on 6th November 2018 as a side event at the European Utility Week had the aim to disseminate the results from the third stage of the project related to the real-life implementation of the improved business models and associated results so far.
The workshop was held on 6th November 2018 as a side event at the European Utility Week. The presentations are now available for download in this page.
Read the press release about the event here.
In cooperation with Florence School of Regulation, the BestRES Consortium organized the European Policy Workshop “RES Aggregators as Enablers of Prosumers and Active Market Participation” at CEER, the Council of European Energy Regulators, in Brussels, on 11th February 2019.
European Policy Workshop “RES Aggregators as Enablers of Prosumers and Active Market Participation” was held in Brussels, on 11th February 2019. The presentations are available for download in this page.
Read the press release about the event here.