Prosumers integration in aggregated demand response systems

In recent years, the increasing popularity of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies is creating a new movement towards more sustainable communities. Understanding energy consumption is important for the optimisation of resources and the implementation of ecological trends. This paper integrates electricity consumers into a cooperative framework for planning sustainable smart communities through aggregators, which reallocates consumers’ demand according to available renewable energy supply collected from consumers and service providers. The aggregated demand response also includes consumers involved in energy production activities through microgeneration capabilities. A characterisation study of the different types of demand preferences is performed by defining scenarios of communities and consumers’ behaviours, which are validated through a reputation factor. The results show that the system adequately manages demand reallocation following the preferences and contribution of consumers and/or prosumers. Besides, this research analyses the current energy policy concerning demand flexibility, demand aggregation and microgeneration capacity, and their regulations in Spain. Finally, microgeneration acceptance, the role of aggregators and prosumers in the scheduling process is also investigated through a series of surveys.