Cost versus Resilience in Energy Communities: A Multi-Objective Member-Focused Analysis

Abstract

This paper develops a multi-objective optimization framework to analyze the trade-offs between annual costs and resilience in energy communities. Under this framework, three energy community operation strategies are analyzed: a reference case where all assets are member-owned, implementing a communal battery electric storage system, and subsidizing energy-poor members. The results indicate that increasing resilience leads to higher operational costs and smaller feasible ranges of energy community energy prices. The analysis reveals that those trade-offs have a heterogeneous impact across different member groups. Owners photovoltaics are most affected due to curtailed energy. Notably, the study shows that while implementing community-owned storage does not directly provide financial benefits to energy-poor members, alleviating the energy price for these members leads to an overall cost reduction of more than 30%. This research provides insights into the operational complexity of energy communities and highlights the importance of technologically robust and socially inclusive energy communities.