IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v395y2025ics030626192500902x.html

Optimising flexibility in highly electrified energy communities: A Mediterranean perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Manso-Burgos, Á.
  • Ribó-Pérez, D.
  • Aparisi-Cerdá, I.
  • Gómez-Navarro, T.
  • Madani, H.

Abstract

Energy communities are emerging as key enablers of the energy transition, facilitating greater electrification and providing essential flexibility services in urban energy systems. This study explores the economic performance of energy communities in Mediterranean cities, focusing on integrating solar generation with a battery energy storage system, electric vehicles, air-source heat pumps, and electric water heaters. Using a mathematical optimisation model applied to a case study in Catarroja, Spain, the research evaluates the techno-economic interactions of these technologies under different economic and regulatory conditions. The results highlight that combining solar generation with flexible technologies enhances economic viability. At the same time, the level of electrification plays a crucial role in determining the profitability of battery storage and photovoltaic systems. These findings underscore the importance of flexibility in designing and operating energy communities, offering valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders aiming to optimise collective energy systems and support a sustainable transition.

Suggested Citation

  • Manso-Burgos, Á. & Ribó-Pérez, D. & Aparisi-Cerdá, I. & Gómez-Navarro, T. & Madani, H., 2025. "Optimising flexibility in highly electrified energy communities: A Mediterranean perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 395(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:395:y:2025:i:c:s030626192500902x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192500902X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126172?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walker, Awnalisa & Kwon, Soongeol, 2021. "Analysis on impact of shared energy storage in residential community: Individual versus shared energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PA).
    2. Ansarin, Mohammad & Ghiassi-Farrokhfal, Yashar & Ketter, Wolfgang & Collins, John, 2020. "The economic consequences of electricity tariff design in a renewable energy era," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    3. Mulleriyawage, U.G.K. & Shen, W.X., 2020. "Optimally sizing of battery energy storage capacity by operational optimization of residential PV-Battery systems: An Australian household case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 852-864.
    4. Prades-Gil, C. & Viana-Fons, J.D. & Masip, X. & Cazorla-Marín, A. & Gómez-Navarro, T., 2023. "An agile heating and cooling energy demand model for residential buildings. Case study in a mediterranean city residential sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    5. Gjorgievski, Vladimir Z. & Cundeva, Snezana & Georghiou, George E., 2021. "Social arrangements, technical designs and impacts of energy communities: A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 1138-1156.
    6. Elena Tarpani & Cristina Piselli & Claudia Fabiani & Ilaria Pigliautile & Eelke J. Kingma & Benedetta Pioppi & Anna Laura Pisello, 2022. "Energy Communities Implementation in the European Union: Case Studies from Pioneer and Laggard Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-17, October.
    7. Jiménez-Castillo, G. & Muñoz-Rodriguez, F.J. & Rus-Casas, C. & Talavera, D.L., 2020. "A new approach based on economic profitability to sizing the photovoltaic generator in self-consumption systems without storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1017-1033.
    8. Santos, Georgina & Rembalski, Sebastian, 2021. "Do electric vehicles need subsidies in the UK?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    9. Costa, C.M. & Barbosa, J.C. & Castro, H. & Gonçalves, R. & Lanceros-Méndez, S., 2021. "Electric vehicles: To what extent are environmentally friendly and cost effective? – Comparative study by european countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    10. Hoarau, Quentin & Perez, Yannick, 2018. "Interactions between electric mobility and photovoltaic generation: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 510-522.
    11. Álvaro Manso-Burgos & David Ribó-Pérez & Manuel Alcázar-Ortega & Tomás Gómez-Navarro, 2021. "Local Energy Communities in Spain: Economic Implications of the New Tariff and Variable Coefficients," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, September.
    12. Fernando Echevarría Camarero & Ana Ogando-Martínez & Pablo Durán Gómez & Pablo Carrasco Ortega, 2022. "Profitability of Batteries in Photovoltaic Systems for Small Industrial Consumers in Spain under Current Regulatory Framework and Energy Prices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-19, December.
    13. Lu, Xinhui & Liu, Zhaoxi & Ma, Li & Wang, Lingfeng & Zhou, Kaile & Feng, Nanping, 2020. "A robust optimization approach for optimal load dispatch of community energy hub," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    14. Sommerfeldt, Nelson & Pearce, Joshua M., 2023. "Can grid-tied solar photovoltaics lead to residential heating electrification? A techno-economic case study in the midwestern U.S," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    15. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Pisello, Anna Laura & Colladon, Andrea Fronzetti & Larijani, Hatef Madani & Dawoud, Belal & Martiskainen, Mari, 2021. "Decarbonizing household heating: Reviewing demographics, geography and low-carbon practices and preferences in five European countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    16. De Coninck, Roel & Helsen, Lieve, 2016. "Quantification of flexibility in buildings by cost curves – Methodology and application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 653-665.
    17. Hennig, Roman J. & Ribó-Pérez, David & de Vries, Laurens J. & Tindemans, Simon H., 2022. "What is a good distribution network tariff?—Developing indicators for performance assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    18. Psimopoulos, Emmanouil & Bee, Elena & Widén, Joakim & Bales, Chris, 2019. "Techno-economic analysis of control algorithms for an exhaust air heat pump system for detached houses coupled to a photovoltaic system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C), pages 355-367.
    19. Gallego-Castillo, Cristobal & Heleno, Miguel & Victoria, Marta, 2021. "Self-consumption for energy communities in Spain: A regional analysis under the new legal framework," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    20. Octavian Jude & Avraham Turgeman & Claudiu Boțoc & Laura Raisa Miloș, 2023. "Volatility and Spillover Effects between Central–Eastern European Stock Markets and Energy Markets: An Emphasis on Crisis Periods," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-12, August.
    21. Eid, Cherrelle & Reneses Guillén, Javier & Frías Marín, Pablo & Hakvoort, Rudi, 2014. "The economic effect of electricity net-metering with solar PV: Consequences for network cost recovery, cross subsidies and policy objectives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 244-254.
    22. Liu, Zhe & Song, Juhyun & Kubal, Joseph & Susarla, Naresh & Knehr, Kevin W. & Islam, Ehsan & Nelson, Paul & Ahmed, Shabbir, 2021. "Comparing total cost of ownership of battery electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    23. Valeriya Azarova & Dominik Engel & Cornelia Ferner & Andrea Kollmann & Johannes Reichl, 2018. "Exploring the impact of network tariffs on household electricity expenditures using load profiles and socio-economic characteristics," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(4), pages 317-325, April.
    24. Salpakari, Jyri & Lund, Peter, 2016. "Optimal and rule-based control strategies for energy flexibility in buildings with PV," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 425-436.
    25. Fischer, David & Bernhardt, Josef & Madani, Hatef & Wittwer, Christof, 2017. "Comparison of control approaches for variable speed air source heat pumps considering time variable electricity prices and PV," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 93-105.
    26. Fina, Bernadette & Auer, Hans & Friedl, Werner, 2019. "Profitability of PV sharing in energy communities: Use cases for different settlement patterns," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    27. Paúl Narváez-Villa & Blanca Arenas-Ramírez & José Mira & Francisco Aparicio-Izquierdo, 2021. "Analysis and Prediction of Vehicle Kilometers Traveled: A Case Study in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-21, August.
    28. Stephen Comello & Stefan Reichelstein, 2019. "The emergence of cost effective battery storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    29. David S. Rapson & Erich Muehlegger, 2023. "The Economics of Electric Vehicles," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 274-294.
    30. Crowley, Bennevis & Kazempour, Jalal & Mitridati, Lesia, 2025. "How can energy communities provide grid services? A dynamic pricing mechanism with budget balance, individual rationality, and fair allocation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 382(C).
    31. Rogério Rocha & Ricardo Silva & João Mello & Sérgio Faria & Fábio Retorta & Clara Gouveia & José Villar, 2023. "A Three-Stage Model to Manage Energy Communities, Share Benefits and Provide Local Grid Services," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-24, January.
    32. Joshua M. Pearce & Nelson Sommerfeldt, 2021. "Economics of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled to Heat Pumps: The Case of Northern Climates of the U.S. and Canada," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fina, Bernadette & Ribo-Perez, David, 2025. "Economic incentive fundamentals for the operation of energy communities with different storage concepts," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vaughan, Jim & Doumen, Sjoerd C. & Kok, Koen, 2023. "Empowering tomorrow, controlling today: A multi-criteria assessment of distribution grid tariff designs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    2. Anna Mutule & Olegs Borscevskis & Victor Astapov & Irina Antoskova & Paula Carroll & Evita Kairisa, 2025. "PV Energy Communities in Residential Apartments: Technical Capacities and Economic Viability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Vallati, Andrea & Lo Basso, Gianluigi & Muzi, Francesco & Fiorini, Costanza Vittoria & Pastore, Lorenzo Mario & Di Matteo, Miriam, 2024. "Urban energy transition: Sustainable model simulation for social house district," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    4. Mariuzzo, Ivan & Fina, Bernadette & Stroemer, Stefan & Raugi, Marco, 2024. "Economic assessment of multiple energy community participation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    5. Efkarpidis, Nikolaos A. & Vomva, Styliani A. & Christoforidis, Georgios C. & Papagiannis, Grigoris K., 2022. "Optimal day-to-day scheduling of multiple energy assets in residential buildings equipped with variable-speed heat pumps," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    6. Massimiliano Manfren & Maurizio Sibilla & Lamberto Tronchin, 2021. "Energy Modelling and Analytics in the Built Environment—A Review of Their Role for Energy Transitions in the Construction Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-29, January.
    7. Bauer, Johannes & Letmathe, Peter & Woeste, Richard, 2025. "Total cost of ownership for battery electric vehicles: The role of energy prices," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 389(C).
    8. Bianchini, Gianni & Casini, Marco & Gholami, Milad, 2025. "Optimal operation of renewable energy communities under demand response programs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    9. Mariuzzo, Ivan & Fina, Bernadette & Stroemer, Stefan & Corinaldesi, Carlo & Raugi, Marco, 2025. "Grid-friendly optimization of energy communities through enhanced multiple participation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    10. Luca Brunelli & Emiliano Borri & Anna Laura Pisello & Andrea Nicolini & Carles Mateu & Luisa F. Cabeza, 2024. "Thermal Energy Storage in Energy Communities: A Perspective Overview through a Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-27, July.
    11. Mulleriyawage, U.G.K. & Shen, W.X., 2021. "Impact of demand side management on optimal sizing of residential battery energy storage system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1250-1266.
    12. De Blasis, Riccardo & Pacelli, Graziella & Vergine, Salvatore, 2026. "Investment valuation of photovoltaic and energy storage systems for diverse energy communities: A real option approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 404(C).
    13. Finck, Christian & Li, Rongling & Kramer, Rick & Zeiler, Wim, 2018. "Quantifying demand flexibility of power-to-heat and thermal energy storage in the control of building heating systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 409-425.
    14. Koltunov, Maksym & De Vidovich, Lorenzo, 2025. "Energy communities in social sciences: A bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    15. Joshua M. Pearce & Nelson Sommerfeldt, 2021. "Economics of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled to Heat Pumps: The Case of Northern Climates of the U.S. and Canada," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    16. Zou, Wenke & Sun, Yongjun & Gao, Dian-ce & Zhang, Xu & Liu, Junyao, 2023. "A review on integration of surging plug-in electric vehicles charging in energy-flexible buildings: Impacts analysis, collaborative management technologies, and future perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    17. Sommerfeldt, Nelson & Pearce, Joshua M., 2023. "Can grid-tied solar photovoltaics lead to residential heating electrification? A techno-economic case study in the midwestern U.S," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    18. Kuboth, Sebastian & Heberle, Florian & König-Haagen, Andreas & Brüggemann, Dieter, 2019. "Economic model predictive control of combined thermal and electric residential building energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C), pages 372-385.
    19. Finck, Christian & Li, Rongling & Zeiler, Wim, 2020. "Optimal control of demand flexibility under real-time pricing for heating systems in buildings: A real-life demonstration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    20. Stinner, Sebastian & Huchtemann, Kristian & Müller, Dirk, 2016. "Quantifying the operational flexibility of building energy systems with thermal energy storages," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 140-154.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:395:y:2025:i:c:s030626192500902x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.